Effect of activated carbon supported Ce/Fe based catalyst for catalytic oxidative desulfurization of Malaysian diesel fuel

A series of bimetallic nanocatalysts, cerium/iron oxides supported on the activated carbon (Ce/Fe-AC) were prepared by the impregnation method. Their catalytic activity in the oxidation of organosulfur in commercial diesel were investigated using tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an oxidant. The effect of reaction time, reaction temperature, dopant ratio and calcination temperature were studied to achieve optimum condition for sulfur removal efficiency. The results indicated that the Ce/Fe-AC (80:20) calcined at 400 °C was the most potential catalyst in this study and can remove 91.5% of sulfur under the optimum conditions. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) showed that the catalyst was highly amorphous, while micrograph of the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) illustrated an inhomogeneous distribution of various particle sizes composed of cerium and iron oxides as proven by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX).