Cu-BDC and Cu(2)O Derived from Cu-BDC for the Removal and Oxidation of Asphaltenes: A Comparative Study

[Image: see text] Asphaltenes have been associated with a number of problems in the petroleum industry with regard to the storage, exploration, and transportation of petroleum crude. In the current work, Copper-BenzeneDiCarboxylic acid (Cu-BDC) and Cu-BDC derived metal oxide has been used in the removal and oxidation of the asphaltenes. The MOF derived metal oxide was confirmed to be Cu(2)O. Though adsorption of asphaltenes followed a Langmuir adsorption isotherm in both cases, Cu-BDC was superior to Cu(2)O with an adsorption capacity four times that of the adsorption capacity of Cu(2)O. Also, the kinetic studies showed that the adsorption kinetics followed pseudo second order adsorption kinetics in both cases. From the oxidation studies, it was found that Cu-BDC was unstable beyond 350 °C and had no role in catalyzing the oxidation reaction. The Cu(2)O, however, was successful at catalyzing the asphaltene oxidation reaction and a reduction of 50 °C in oxidation temperature was observed. Hence comparing Cu-BDC with Cu(2)O, MOF was successful in the adsorption reaction but the MOF derived metal oxide had the upper hand in the oxidation reaction.