The Effectiveness of Ni/Ce/Al₂O₃ Catalyst in the Extraction of Naphthenic Acids from Acidic Crude Oil

Abstract:

Processing of petroleum crude oil with high total acid number (TAN) lead to corrosion problems in oil refinery equipment, storage, facilities and even reduces the performances of the oil. The purpose of this study is to overcome the corrosion problem in oil refinery by reducing the TAN in the oil to less than 1 mgKOH/g. A 2-methylimidazole in ethanol with the aid of Ni/Ce (10:90)/Al₂O₃ catalyst through the catalytic deacidification technique. The catalyst was prepared by using Incipient Wetness Impregnation (IWI) methods on alumina beads as catalyst support and calcined at 800°C, 900°C and 1000°C. Ni/Ce (10:90)/Al₂O₃ catalyst was characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) to study physicochemical properties of the catalyst. The results shows that Ni/Ce (10:90)/Al₂O₃ catalyst successfully reduced TAN in crude oil to 0.50 from 4.22 mg KOH/g at 1000°C calcination temperature and catalyst loading of 0.39% (7 beads). XRD analysis proposed Al₂O₃ and CeO₂ fcc was the active site for Ni/Ce (10:90)/Al₂O₃ catalyst. C-H alkanes stretching, -CH₂- alkanes stretching and pure metal oxides stretching modes were detected on the catalyst at wavelength of 2952.49 to 2852.82, 1599.38, and 862.81 to 537.27 cm^-1 respectively by FTIR analysis after catalytic deacidification process which indicates that there were impurities that have adsorbed on the catalyst surface. As a conclusion, the catalysts successfully reduced the TAN value of acidic crude oil to less than 1.00 mg KOH/g.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 1025)
• Pages: 284-289
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.1025.284
• Online since: March 2021
• Authors: Nurul Hidayah Aziz, Norshahidatul Akmar Mohd Shohaimi*, Noraini Safar Che Harun
• Keywords: Acidic Crude, Catalyst, Naphthenic Acid, Total Acid Number

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