Refining of industrial spent-fuel oil by removal of metals impurities using nanoparticle additives / Muhammad Irsyad Roslan

Energy plays a vital role in economic growth around the globe. As the demand and usage of fuels increases, primary sources of energy mainly fossil fuel and natural gas are getting depleted day by day. This is circumvented by implementing chemical recycling practices, which shows that worn out fuel can still be used as a source of energy after undergoing thorough process specifically pyrolysis which turns the fuel into pyrolytic oil. Recently, nanoparticles have garnered a lot of attractions as a potential additive for pyrolytic oil. It has been suggested that these additives are able to improve pyrolytic oil properties and quality by removing metal impurities. Therefore, in this research study, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle is synthesized in laboratory scale by using sol-gel method. Zinc acetate dihydrate and NaOH was used as precursor for this synthesis. The solution was then mixed, heated under constant stirring and dried at 100oC to produce ZnO nanoparticle sample. This sample is further analyzed by usage XRD, FTIR and TGA. The analysis of XRD shows the different peaks are located at 31.84°, 32.34°, and 33.50° which indicates presence of zinc and peak at 38.02° which indicates some presence of zinc acetate. The FTIR shows absorption peaks at 533.71 cm-1 which corresponds to ZnO stretching vibrations but less O-H stretching in 3398.56 cm-1 and 2912.09 cm-1 peaks. Analysis of TGA further confirm the presence of zinc acetate by huge weight loss at 200oC to 300oC