Modification of Ti-Ce based adsorbent by adding aluminum for improving adsorptive desulfurization performance

Ti-Ce-O based material is promising adsorbent for adsorptive desulfurization of liquid hydrocarbon fuels due to its higher selectivity for sulfur compounds and easy regeneration by oxidation in air. However, the low capacity and poor regenerability limit its application. It is necessary to improve the capacity and regenerability of the Ti-Ce-O-based material for adsorptive desulfurization. A high surface area and mesoporous nanocrystalline Ti-Ce-Al-O adsorbent was prepared in this study by adding aluminum into Ti-Ce-O-based material. The adsorption desulfurization and regeneration tests of the Ti-Ce-Al-O adsorbent for a model fuel and a real jet fuel were conducted at room temperature under atmosphere pressure in both batch and flow fixed-bed systems. Ti-Ce-Al-O adsorbent was further characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TGA-MS and XPS methods. It was found that the mesoporous Ti-Ce-Al-O has higher sulfur adsorptive capacity and better oxidative regenerability than TiO2, CeO2, and Ti-Ce-O. The higher adsorptive capacity of Ti-Ce-Al-O adsorbent can be contributed to its higher surface area value (288.7 m2/g), smaller crystal size (about 1.7 nm) and uniform pore size distribution (47.4 nm), addition of Al into metal oxide Ti-Ce-O promotes the dispersion of the metal oxides, increases the surface area, strengthens the mechanical flexibility, and optimizes the spheric morphology of the adsorbent.