Removal of mercaptans from light oil cuts using Cu(II)–Y type Zeolite

In this paper, the removal of mercaptans (also known as Thiols) from two types of oil cuts, L-SRG and L-Naphtha, from Isfahan Refinery (Iran) was investigated by using synthesized Cu(II)–Y type zeolite in a batch system. The results were compared with those obtained over parent Na–Y zeolite. The effects of three parameters i.e. ion-exchange level, the mass of zeolite per volume of oil cut, and contact time on the removal of mercaptan (RSH) were investigated at ambient temperature. The numbers of experiments were minimized by using Taguchi method. In this regard, four levels making orthogonal array L16, were selected for each parameter. It was observed that the removal of sulfur was extremely influenced by selected parameters.