Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Integrative Medicine Cluster, Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 13200 Bertam Kepala Batas, Penang, Malaysia
  • 5 Unisza Science and Medicine Foundation Centre, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Besut Campus, 22200, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia
  • 6 School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
  • 7 School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. wanazwanie@usm.my
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Jan;29(1):1009-1020.
PMID: 34341936 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-15733-1

Abstract

The world faces the challenge to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel with low-cost technology. Therefore, this research emphasised on production of low sulfur fuel utilising nanoparticle catalyst under mild condition. A small amount of cobalt oxide (10-30 wt%) was introduced into the Fe/Al2O3 catalyst through the wet impregnation method. Cobalt modification induces a positive effect on the performance of the iron catalyst. Hence, the insertion of cobalt species into Fe/Al2O3 led to the formation of lattice fringes in all directions which resulted in the formation of Co3O4 and Fe3O4 species. The optimised catalyst, Co/Fe-Al2O3, calcined at 400 °C with a dopant ratio of 10:90 indicating the highest desulfurisation activity by removing 96% of thiophene, 100% of dibenzothiophene (DBT) and 92% of 4,6-dimethyl dibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT). Based on the density functional theory (DFT) on Co/Fe-Al2O3, two pathways with the overall energy of -40.78 eV were suggested for the complete oxidation of DBT.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.