Sulfur is one of the most common impurities in crude oil. The presence of sulfur compounds reduces the quality of petroleum products and during the refining process of these compounds, they deactivate the adsorbents used in oil processing. For this reason, the desulfurization process is used. Absorptive desulfurization is one of the most effective and efficient methods of desulfurization, and it can be done in different ways. One of these methods is using zeolites, including natural and synthetic zeolites. Natural clinoptilolite zeolite has been used in this research. To increase efficiency, clinoptilolite zeolite must be modified first. Acid modification strongly changes the surface properties. Additionally, calcination activates the zeolite. For this purpose, we treated it with acid followed by calcination, and then, it was loaded with Ni2+, Cu2+, and Ce3+ species. The modified adsorbent was used in the absorption desulfurization process of dibenzothiophene sulfur compounds. The effect of several parameters such as pH, concentration, adsorbent amount, time, and temperature was investigated by RSM experiment design software in absorptive desulfurization. The results indicated that the adsorbent is cost-effective and possesses high absorption capacity [1-4].
