Deacidification of petroleum crude oil by using 2-methylimidazole with the aid of ca/cu/ai2o3 catalyst / Muhammad Amirrul Hakim Lokman Nolhakim

The naphthenic acids (NA) found in petroleum may cause serious corrosion
problems for processing equipment. To reduce total acid number (TAN) from
crude oil sample, catalytic deacidification with the aid of Cu/Ca/Al2O3 catalyst
and 2-methylimidazole was introduced. Catalytic deacidification is a method
to reduce TAN and reduce the NA concentration on the acidic crude oil
sample from PETRONAS Penapisan Melaka with the original TAN of 2.43
mg KOH/g. A basic chemical with dosing 9% of 2-methylimidazole in
ethanol solution was used as the acid removal agent. Calcium oxide based
catalyst supported onto alumina prepared with different calcination
temperature of 900°C, 10000C and 1100°C. FTIR, TGA-DTG and XRD was
used for potential catalyst to observed the physicochemical properties. The
result shows TAN reduction from 2.43 mg KOH/g to 0.2 mg KOH/g which
92% reduction for PETRONAS Penapisan Melaka crude oil using
CulCalAh03 catalyst calcined at 1000°C, 0.4% of catalyst loading (3 beads),
reaction temperature at 27°C and 10 minutes reaction times. The catalyst have
the small particle size that provide bigger surface area to enhance the catalytic
performance which remove the NA in the PETRONAS Penapisan Melaka
crude oil and as a conclusion the TAN value can achieved below than 1 mg
KOH/g.