Isothermal and Kinetics Investigation of Dibenzothiophene Removal from Model Fuel by Activated Carbon Developed from Mixed Date Seed and PET Wastes

Abstract

This study focuses on the synthesis of activated carbon (AC) using a mix of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and date seeds (DS) by the optimized ZnCl 2 -activation method for the first time. At 600 °C for 1 h utilizing an impregnation ratio of 2:1 ZnCl 2 : mix, the ideal AC was synthesized. The latter was submitted to identification by N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms and pore volume, XRD, FESEM, EDX, total basic and acid groups, FTIR, and pH PZC , and the outcome suggested its mesoporous structure with an average pore size of 3.16 nm and a BET surface area of 672.22 m 2 /g. This AC was tried in the dispose of dibenzothiophene (DBT) from model oil (DBT/nhexane), and the findings showed that the superlative elimination of DBT (95.07%) was accomplished at 35 °C for 80 min using 0.30 g of the AC. Eliminating DBT by the AC derived from the said mix was best represented by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo-2 nd -order kinetics model. An adsorptive capacity of 23.80 mg/g was obtained as per the Langmuir adsorption isotherm.The regenerated AC demonstrated an outstanding adsorptive performance for DBT up to 4 cycles of reuse, signifying its high adsorption performance.