Preparation and Characterization of Microfiber Impregnated Reinforced Alumina Supported ZnO Catalyst

摘要

Sulfur removal from refinery streams becoming more challenging due to the stringentenvironmental regulations. Among several technologies, reactive adsorption is adesulfurization technique that can be applied to remove the last ppm sulfur from fuels. For thispurpose, a kind of microfiber impregnated alumina supported ZnO catalysts were prepared byincipient wetness impregnation (IWI) technique followed by sintering in air at 450-500 C. 8-micrometer diameter E-type glass and silica fibers were utilized to entrap porous Al2O3 supportparticulates. Zinc oxide (ZnO), a most active component to remove sulfur species, was thendispersed on the Al2O3 pore surface at room temperature using Zn(NO3)2 aqueous solutions asa precursor. The resulting microfibrous catalysts took advantage of high void volume,heat/mass transfer, surface area, permeability, contacting efficiency etc. The structure and themorphology of the porous materials were characterized by XRD, SEM/EDS, EDAX, XPS, N2Adsorption-desorption. The physicochemical properties of the microfibrous ZnO/Al2O3 catalystswere juxtaposed with traditional ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts of similar compositions. Comparedbetween microfibrous catalyst and reference catalyst, the surface areas were increased by19.5% and the pore structure became more uniform in same size range.