Nanostructured iron and nickel oxide aerogels revolutionizing asphaltene removal in hydrocarbon processing

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Author(s)Babaei, Elahe
Author(s)Bazyari, Amin
Author(s)Shojaei, Behzad
Author(s)Thompson, Levi T.
Date Accessioned2025-05-27T18:45:09Z
Date Available2025-05-27T18:45:09Z
Publication Date2025-04-13
DescriptionThis article was originally published in Scientific Reports. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95667-7. © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
AbstractAsphaltenes, complex molecules in crude oil, cause significant challenges in oil production and refining due to their tendency to form agglomerates and precipitate. This study investigates the effectiveness of preparation method of metal oxide-based adsorbents (NiO and Fe2O3) in removing asphaltenes. Nanostructured NiO and Fe2O3 xerogels and aerogels were produced through the Pechini-type and epoxide-derived sol − gel methods and employed for the adsorption of Ap1, a specific asphaltene extracted from Iranian crude oil. The nanomaterials were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, FE-SEM, EDS, and FT-IR. The influence of synthesis parameters, including citric acid to metal precursor molar ratio, type of adsorbent, textural characteristics, adsorption temperature, sol-gel protocols, calcination temperatures, and drying conditions, on the adsorbent performance was systematically studied. The NiO(X-300) xerogel synthesized by the epoxide-derived sol − gel with calcination at 300 °C exhibited the highest asphaltene adsorption capacity (q = 558 mg/g) among all xerogels tested. This capacity was 102% and 87% higher than those achieved on optimized reference NiO(P-600) (q = 276 mg/g) and Fe2O3(P-600) (q = 298 mg/g) adsorbents prepared by the Pechini-type method, respectively. The textural properties of both NiO and Fe2O3 materials were improved upon supercritical CO2 drying of the epoxide-derived gels, leading to the nanostructured NiO(A-300) (q = 699 mg/g) aerogel with significantly higher (~ 135%) asphaltene adsorption capacity than Fe2O3(P-600). For the best aerogels, NiO(A-300) and Fe2O3(A-450), the adsorption isotherms and the kinetic data were best fitted by the Jovanovic and the Elovich models, respectively. Ap1 exhibited rapid adsorption onto NiO(A-300) and NiO(X-300), achieving equilibrium within 20 min. The adsorption process was demonstrably spontaneous and exothermic.
SponsorThis research did not receive dedicated funding from public, commercial, or nonprofit organizations.
CitationBabaei, E., Bazyari, A., Shojaei, B. et al. Nanostructured iron and nickel oxide aerogels revolutionizing asphaltene removal in hydrocarbon processing. Sci Rep 15, 12729 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95667-7
ISSN2045-2322
URLhttps://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/36274
Languageen_US
PublisherScientific Reports
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Keywordsasphaltene adsorption
Keywordssupercritical drying
Keywordsaerogel
Keywordsxerogel
Keywordsnickel oxide
Keywordsiron oxide
TitleNanostructured iron and nickel oxide aerogels revolutionizing asphaltene removal in hydrocarbon processing
TypeArticle
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