Frontiers in Environmental Engineering (FIEE) Volume 6, 2017 www.seipub.org/fiee doi: 10.14355/fiee.2017.06.001 1 Synthesis of Cu-BTC/AC Composite Porous Materials and the Performance in Adsorption Desulfurization Fabien Habimana *1 , Da Shi 1 , Shengfu Ji 1 1 State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology *1 2014420006@grad.buct.edu.cn; 2 2014400017@grad.buct.edu.cn; 3 jisf@mail.buct.edu.cn Abstract Cu-BTC/AC composite porous materials were synthesized and were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, TEM and BET techniques. Their adsorptive desulfurization performance was investigated for the removal of thiophene from thiophene/n-octane model oil under mild reaction conditions. Investigation results have shown that the 50%Cu-BTC/AC composite sample has the highest adsorption desulfurization ability under optimum adsorption temperature of 30 ℃, optimum model oil/adsorbent mass ratio of 100:1. After 6 hours of desulfurization, the 50%Cu-BTC/AC composite sample has exhibited the highest adsorption rate of 74% and the adsorption capacity was 28.19 mS/g MOF. The 50%Cu-BTC/AC composite sample adsorbent could be reused for at least five consecutive rounds with a slight decrease in adsorption capacity with the increase in number of reuse times. The adsorption kinetics behavior of Cu-BTC/AC composite was studied and results have shown that the adsorption of thiophene on Cu-BTC/AC composites fits well both the pseudo-first order rate equation and pseudo-second order rate equation models. Keywords Cu-BTC/AC; Composite Porous Materials; Adsorption; Desulfurization Introduction The current world economic growth requires diversified sources of energy. In this regard, there is an increasing global demand for clean fuel and gasoline with low sulfur content. Currently, the process of desulfurization is being carried out by two major technologies: hydrodesulfurization and non-hydrodesulfurization. The hydrodesulfurization technology is very costly due to its high operating conditions such as high temperature and high pressure. This technology also needs hydrogen as a reactant [1-3]. The non-hydrodesulfurization technology does not need hydrogen to operate and can be achieved through different type of processes namely: extraction desulfurization, oxidation desulfurization, adsorption desulfurization, biological desulfurization and, etc. Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have exhibited suitable properties that contribute to their application in various fields such as catalytic reaction, gas adsorption, oil desulfurization and so on [4-6]. The adsorptive desulfurization performance of Cu-BTC can be enhanced by the embedment of the activated carbon support. The activated carbon is the most widely used adsorbent because most of its chemical and physical properties (pore size distribution and surface area, high surface areas, large pore volumes), and tunable surface properties [7-8]. The specific surface areas as well as the porosity of AC are widely affected by the precursors of carbonaceous raw materials and the preparation techniques. Its usefulness also results from its large micropore (and sometimes mesopore) volume and the resulting high surface area optimal product [9-11]. Due to its properties, the activated carbon has been used as an important adsorbent especially in gas adsorption. In most cases, activated carbon was normally used in adsorption of compounds with weaker polarity from gas-phase or polar fluid phase such as the adsorption of organics in wastewater[12-15]. Thus, one of the main challenges for adsorptive desulfurization of liquid hydrocarbon fuels is to separate selectively the sulfur compounds with low polarity from a non-polar fluid phase. To overcome this problem, we have synthesized Cu-BTC/AC composite materials with improved adsorption desulfurization potentials. The adsorption desulfurization performance of these composites was investigated for the removal of thiophene from thiophene/n-octane model oil under mild