Mercaptan removal from natural gas using carbon nanotube supported cobalt phthalocyanine nanocatalyst

• Preparation of new nanocatalyst, Carbon nanotubes supported cobalt phthalocyanine.
• Mercaptan removal from natural gas using new nanocatalyst.
• Obtaining Optimum operating condition (200 °C and GHSV 2000 h−1) with maximum mercaptan conversion (99.99%).

The synthesis of carbon nanotubes with a cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) complex has been described. The removal of mercaptan from gas stream in the present MWCNT-COOH-CoPc nanocatalyst was tested in a fixed bed reactor. For synthesizing this catalyst, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were used as support and MWCNT-COOH-CoPc nanocatalyst with loadings of 10 wt% of cobalt phthalocyanine organometal were prepared using the incipient wetness impregnation method. Nanocatalysts were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The effect of important operating parameters including temperature and Gas Hour Space Velocity (GHSV) was investigated. The results confirmed that the best condition can be achieved by setting the temperature at 200 °C and GHSV at 2000 h−1 with maximum mercaptan conversion of 99.99%.