Catalytic study of Ni/Ce/Al2O3and Ni/Ca/Al2O3on the removal of naphthenic acid from petroleum crude oil utilizing sodium thiocyanate in ethanol

The naphthenic acids (NAs) present in the crude oil can lead to the corrosion problems in oil refinery equipment apart from reduces the performances of the oil. In this study, the method to remove NA were done by means of extraction using sodium thiocyanate in ethanol with the aid of Ni/Ca/Al(2)O(3)and Ni/Ce/Al(2)O(3)catalysts at 27 degrees C reaction temperature. The catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method (IWI) and calcined at three different temperature, 800, 900 and 1000 degrees C respectively. The efficiency of the extraction was affected by the catalyst calcination temperature. Both catalysts calcined at 800 and 900 degrees C gave total acid number (TAN) value more than 1 mg KOH/g while by using Ni/Ca(10:90)/Al(2)O(3)and Ni/Ce(10:90)/Al(2)O(3)calcined at 1000 degrees C the TAN value were reduced to 0.28 and 0.65 mg KOH/g respectively. Brunauer-Emmett Teller (BET) result shows both catalysts have large surface area that provide more reaction cites when calcined at 1000 degrees C. X-ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD) analysis of Ni/Ca/Al(2)O(3)catalyst revealed that the active site was dominated by the Al(2)O(3)species while CeO(2)was the active site for Ni/Ce/Al(2)O(3)catalyst. In conclusion, both catalysts reduced the TAN value of acidic crude oil efficiently.