Microwave-assisted catalytic oxidative desulfurization of gasoil fuel using synthesized CuO-ZnO nanocomposites

Recently, organosulfur removal from liquid petroleum fuels is very significant aspect of environment protecting and fuel cell requests. Therefore, improved approaches to remove sulfur are still essential. In the present work, a simple catalytic oxidative desulfurization (CODS) system for Iraqi gasoil fraction has been successfully developed using CuO-ZnO nanocomposites as catalysts, and H₂O₂ as oxidant under microwave irradiation. The main reaction parameters influencing sulfur conversion including microwave power, irradiation time, catalyst dosage and H₂O₂ to gasoil volume ratio have been investigated. The CuO-ZnO nanocomposites was synthesized with different weight ratios and characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, AFM and BET surface area methods. The results reveal that, high sulfur conversion (93%) has been achieved under suitable conditions of microwave CODS as follows:microwave power of 540 W, irradiation time of 15 min, catalyst dosage of 8 g/L (0.4 g), and H₂O₂:gasoil volume ratio of 0.3. The catalyst reusability shows that the synthesized catalyst can be reused five times without an important loss in its activity.