Catalytic Neutralization of Acidic Petroleum Crude Oil Utilizing 2-Methylimidazole with Addition of Cu/Ce(10:90)/Al2O3 Catalyst[Peneutralan Pemangkin Minyak Mentah Petroleum Berasid Menggunakan 2-Metilimidazol dengan Tambahan Mangkin Cu/Ce(10:90)/Al2O3]

Abstract

The presence of naphthenic acid (NA) in crude oil leads to corrosion problems within oil refineries which may increase the maintenance cost and produce lower quality of crude oil. The objective of this study is to reduce the total acid number (TAN) of Petronas Penapisan Melaka (PPM)’s crude oil (TAN = 2.43 mgKOH/g) using 2-methylimidazole with the aid of Cu/Ce (10:90)/Al2O3 catalyst through the catalytic neutralization technique. A 10% of 2-methylimidazole in ethanol solution was used as the acid removal agent. Cerium oxide based catalysts with copper as a dopant were supported onto alumina and calcined at different calcination temperatures of 800 ℃, 900 ℃ and 1000 ℃. The potential catalyst was characterized by using TGA-DTG, FTIR and XRD for its physicochemical properties. The results showed TAN was reduced to 0.53 mg KOH/g with 78.2% reduction at catalyst calcination temperature of 900 ℃, 0.5% catalyst loading, reaction temperature of 27 ℃ and 10 minutes reaction time. The small particle size of catalyst calcined at 900 ℃ which was 18.02 nm led to bigger surface areas that enhanced the neutralization process. These structural properties contributed to the excellent catalytic performance which removed the NAs in the PPM’s crude oil and concurrently reduced the TAN value below than one.