Characterization of commercial ceramic adsorbents and its application on naphthenic acids removal of petroleum distillates

The mixture of carboxylic acids present in petroleum oil and directly responsible for its acidity and corrosiveness in liquid phase during the refine process is denominated "naphthenic acids". These acids are also present in distilled fraction of petroleum, causing several problems in final products quality. A possible way to remove the carboxilic acids from petroleum distilled fractions is the adsorption in porous materials. However, the results obtained until now indicate that ion exchange resins would be the best adsorbents for this process, which would probably increase its cost. In this w...