https://www.piche.org.pk/journal/index.php/jpiche <p>Journal of the Pakistan Institute of Chemical Engineers (JPIChE) is the publication of the Pakistan Institute of Chemical Engineers (PIChE). The journal has been approved by HEC. The Journal publishes articles covering wide range of fields of chemical and process engineering.</p> en-US Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:<br /> <ol type="a"><br /><li>Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" target="_new">Creative Commons Attribution License</a> that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.</li><br /><li>Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.</li><br /><li>Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See <a href="http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html" target="_new">The Effect of Open Access</a>).</li></ol> chief_editor.jpiche@piche.org.pk (Prof. Dr. Muhammad Arif Butt) khurram.icet@pu.edu.pk (Dr. Khurram Shahzad, Editor JPIChE) Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0500 OJS 3.3.0.13 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 https://www.piche.org.pk/journal/index.php/jpiche/article/view/628 <p>The present study investigates the desulfurization of heavy and light crude oils using ferric-oxide (Fe₂O₃) nano-catalysts under mild operating conditions, with the goal of developing an energy-efficient, hydrogen-free alternative to conventional hydrodesulfurization (HDS). Laboratory experiments were conducted in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor, evaluating the effects of temperature (35–75 °C), pressure (1.0–1.9 bar), catalyst particle diameter (54–91 nm), and catalytic-bed diameter (1–2.5 cm) on sulfur-removal efficiency. Optimal desulfurization occurred at 55 °C, 1.6 bar, and a bed diameter of 2.5 cm, with 58 nm and 77 nm nanoparticles showing the best performance for heavy and light crudes, respectively. A quadratic regression model developed through analysis of variance (ANOVA) yielded an excellent fit (R² = 0.9997, Adj-R² = 0.9899), validating the model’s predictive capability. Compared with conventional HDS, the Fe₂O₃ nano-catalyst achieved 70–90 % sulfur removal without hydrogen consumption and at less than one-tenth of the energy intensity. A preliminary techno-economic analysis indicated that the heating energy accounts for ~45 k USD yr⁻¹ (≈0.1 kWh kg⁻¹ S removed) for a 1,000 bbl day⁻¹ pilot system. Benchmarking against HDS, oxidative desulfurization (ODS), and bio-desulfurization (BDS) demonstrated the potential of the nano-catalyst process for decentralized or small-scale refinery units. The findings provide a foundation for scaling up low-pressure, low-temperature catalytic desulfurization systems and integrating them with sustainable refining operations.</p> Farshad Farahbod, Abuzar Shakeri, Seyede Nasrin Hosseinimotlagh Copyright (c) https://www.piche.org.pk/journal/index.php/jpiche/article/view/628 Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0500