Desulfurization of high sulfur petroleum coke by molten caustic leaching

Abstract Desulfurization by molten caustic leaching (MCL) at 400–500 °C has been investigated in order to reduce the sulfur content of petroleum coke. Effective parameters on desulfurization of petroleum coke, other than temperature, include alkali to feed (petroleum coke) mass ratio, time and mesh size in the ranges of 0.5–1.5, 1–3 h and 200–600 µm, respectively. In this work, petroleum coke desulfurization conditions using solid KOH have been studied. Maximum petroleum coke desulfurization by MCL method has been obtained by Taguchi L9 design using alkali to feed mass ratio of 1, temperature of 600 °C, time of 2 h and mesh size of 200 µm. The changes in the main groups on the coke surface have been determined using FTIR spectroscopy. In addition, SEM-EDX, TGA and XRD analyses have been used to investigate the changes in coke physical and chemical properties.