www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJSITM: Volume: 06, Number: 03, January 2017 Page 1 Removal of Objectionable Material from Kerosene Range Hydrocarbon Dr. N. B. Selukar Department of Chemical Technology, S.G.B. Amravati University, Amravati, Maharashtra (India) Contact: +919370103307 E-mail: nbselukar@gmail.com ABSTRACT Kerosene is commonly used as solvent in industry as well as fuel for domestic purposes. It mainly consists of paraffinic, naphthenic and aromatic hydrocarbons of the range C 11 to C 14 . Some impurities like sulphur and its derivative are also associated with kerosene. Aromatic hydrocarbon particularly benzene is highly carcinogenic in nature. Similarly sulphur also creates problem of pollution, corrosion and deactivation of catalyst. Traditional method adopted in refinery for removal of aromatics and sulphur is very costly. A work is carried out to reduce concentration of aromatic hydrocarbon as well as sulphur from kerosene range hydrocarbon by using simple technique. The work shows that simple adsorption technique by using different adsorbent can able to reduce the concentration of above species to minimum level. The adopted technique is highly eco-friendly, economical and efficient. Keywords: Kerosene, sulphur in kerosene, desulphurization of kerosene, aromatic hydrocarbons, aniline point enhancement, smoke point enhancement. INTRODUCTION Petroleum is also called rock oil. It is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic compounds. Crude oil is process in refinery to obtain various fractions. The most common liquid hydrocarbon fractions are gasoline, kerosene, diesel and lube oils. 1 – 3 Kerosene is distillate fraction of crude oil in the boiling range 150 – 250 0 C. Various types of hydrocarbons present in kerosene are paraffins (alkanes), naphthenes (cycloalkanes) aromatics and non-hydrocarbon compounds containing sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen and metals. Carbon number of hydrocarbon associated with kerosene varies from C 11 to C 14 . Kerosene is widely used as a fuel to power jet engines, cooking and lightening as well as solvent. It is also used to manufacture insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. 4 – 6 In case of kerosene fraction, the sulphur compounds mostly prevailing include mercaptans, sulphides, disulphides and thiophenes. The sulphur containing compounds in petroleum and its fractions are undesirable in refining process as they affect the quality of the final product, causes catalyst poisoning and deactivation in catalytic converters. It leads to corrosion problem in oil pipelines, pumps, refining equipment etc. and also causes high processing cost as well as environmental pollution from their combustion. Higher sulphur present in fuel leads to increased emission of sulphur dioxides, responsible for acid-rain. 7, 8 There are various methods for sulphur removal. The most recent method adopted in refinery is the hydrodesulphurization. Hydrodesulphurization (HDS) is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulphur from refined petroleum products such as gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel and fuel oil. The HDS takes place in a fixed bed reactor at elevated temperatures ranging from 300 – 400 0 C and at elevated pressure ranging from 30 to 130 atmospheres. Ruthenium disulphide (RuS 2 ) appears to be the single most active catalyst, but binary combinations of Cobalt and Molybdenum on support are also highly active. A liquid hydrocarbon fraction of kerosene range which used as a solvent having a problem of odour. The literature survey indicates that the odour is due to the presence of sulphur and its derivatives. 7 – 12