Synthesis of magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon (Fe-OMC) adsorbent and its evaluation for fuel desulfurization

• Adsorptive desulfurization of model oil with magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon adsorbent, Fe-OMC, was studied.
• Maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of Fe-OMC for DBT was found to be 111.1 mg g−1.
• Freundlich isotherm best represents the equilibrium adsorption data.
• Rate of DBT adsorption process onto Fe-OMC is controlled by at least two steps.

In this work, magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon adsorbent was synthesized using soft templating method to adsorb sulfur from model oil (dibenzothiophene in n-hexane). Through this research, pluronic F-127, resorcinol-formaldehyde and hydrated iron nitrate were respectively used as soft template, carbon source and iron source. The adsorbent was characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherm and transmission electron microscopy. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurement revealed the high surface area (810 m2 g−1), maxima pore size of 3.3 nm and large pore volume (1.01 cm3 g−1) of the synthesized sample. The adsorbent showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 111 mg dibenzothiophene g−1 of adsorbent. Sorption process was described by the pseudo-second-order rate equation and could be better fitted by the Freundlich model, showing the heterogeneous feature of the adsorption process. In addition, the adsorption capacity of regenerated adsorbent was 78.6% of the initial level, after five regeneration cycles.

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