A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built
Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering
(MSc 50/50)
School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
November, 2016 / The global focus on cleaner air has seen sulphur removal processes’ gaining popularity and adsorptive desulphurisation has been identified as an effective alternative. Adsorptive desulphurisation was used to simulate and evaluate the performance of the polymer supported imidation agent (Sodium N-chloro-polystyrene sulphonamide) as an adsorbent in the desulphurisation of diesel fuel. This study involved the development of a mathematical model for the adsorption process of sulphur on the polymer supported imidation agent, based on the mass balance on a continuous fixed bed column and pseudo second order kinetics. The developed model was solved using numerical methods, and the simulation of the process carried out varying different parameters; the inlet sulphur concentration, the adsorption column bed height and the particle size (radius) of the adsorbent.
The simulation showed that the adsorption capacity of the studied adsorbent increased with increase in the inlet sulphur concentration; an increase in the adsorption bed height and a decrease in the adsorbent particle size. Validation of the simulation done was carried out by comparing the simulation data with experimental data. The proposed model fit experimental data and can be used to predict the inlet concentration conditions, bed height and particle size of the adsorbent. The overall research enhances the understanding of the adsorptive desulphurisation of diesel fuel using the polymer supported imidation agent and the mathematical modelling of the process. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22331 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Sanyangare (Chawira), Faith |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (viii, 103 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds