Combined oxidative-adsorptive method for elimination of dibenzothiophene; degradation by TiO2-CMK-8 photocatalyst, adsorption by CMK-8 and SBA-15 | Insight Medical Publishing

In this research, the photocatalytic oxidative method by use of a new photocatalyst prepared based on TiO2 impregnated on the CMK-8 support was employed to degrade dibenzothiophene from organic solution. The degradation products were identified and adsorbed by CMK-8 and SBA-15 adsorbents. The results indicated that at optimized conditions 92% of the pollutant was decomposed. The kinetic of the process was fast and the equilibrium was established within 120 min. 60% degradation was occurred after 25 min. The optimal degradation efficiency was obtained with 0.2 g of the catalyst containing 10 W% of TiO2. The catalyst dose was relatively low compared to the previous reported values. The adsorption experiments indicated that the degradation products, especially the sulfones were mostly removed by the used adsorbents. The catalyst was used for elimination of total sulfur in three real samples of diesel oil containing different concentration of sulfur. The results indicated that the sulfur content was significantly reduced. Regeneration of the used photocatalyst indicated that most of initial activity was retained after catalyst recovery.