Synthesis of spherical activated carbon supported copper catalyst and its performance for adsorptive desulfurization

Phenolic weak acid cation exchange resin was used as carbon precursor to prepare spherical activated carbon supported copper catalyst by ion exchange, carbonization and activation with CO₂. The catalyst was characterized by SEM, XRD, AAS and BET. The adsorptive capacities for different sulfur-containing compounds were evaluated by dynamic adsorption experiments and the competitive effects of toluene and cyclohexene were investigated. The mechanism of adsorptive desulfurization was primarily studied as well. The results showed that metals in the spherical activated carbon existed in elemental form and improved the adsorption performance through direct coordination with sulfur atoms. The saturation capacities for thiophene(T), 3-methylthiophene(MT), 2,5-dimethylthiophene(DMT) and benzothiophene(BT) were 0.938, 1.230, 1.581 and 3.744 mg/g, respectively. The adsorptive selectivity increased in the order of T