Study on Separating Naphthenic Acids from Diesel Fuel by Microwave Irradiation

The microwave technology was introduced to separate naphthenic acids from diesel fuel. Thedecrease of zeta-potential of electric double layer on the W/O interface and the reduction of diesel fuelviscosity were responsible for the accelerated separation of naphthenic acids under microwave irradiation.The influences of dosage of alkali compound solvent (Mp/MT), irradiation pressure, irradiation time,irradiation power, the settling time and oil phase-to-solvent phase volume ratio (O/S) had been investigated.The optimum process conditions for the refining process were determined. The removal of naphthenicacids reached 98.4% when the optimum conditions were proposed as follows: Mp/MT=1.5, 0.05MPa, 6 min,375W, 25min and O/S=10, respectively. The diesel recovery could reach 99.3% and the quality of thetreated diesel oil was good enough to meet the specification of GB252-2000.