The ultra-deep removal of thiophene from coke oven gas (COG) is critical for the conversion of COG to methane. Currently, Cu/ZnO/AlO is considered as a promising sorbent for thiophene removal; however, its desulfurization performance is currently unable to meet the requirements for industrial applications. Here, a zirconium modification strategy is proposed to overcome this problem, allowing zirconium loaded copper-based sorbents (Cu/ZnO/AlO/ZrO) with significantly improved thiophene removal performance and high activity to be obtained. Characterization results showed that zirconium improved both the dispersion of copper and the concentration of Lewis acid sites on the sorbent surface. A ZrO concentration of 2 % resulted in stronger Cu-Zn interaction, and the dispersion of Cu on the surface of the sorbent reached its maximum value (49.20 %). Additionally, the Lewis acid strength was also maximized, which greatly improved the desulfurization activity and resulted in a breakthrough adsorption capacity of thiophene (Q) of 36.24 mg/g, which was about 17 % higher than that of the unmodified Cu/ZnO/AlO sorbent. These results demonstrate that the sulfur capacity of the sorbent can be increased by increasing the number of acidic sites on its surface, paving the way for ultra-deep thiophene removal in industrial applications.

中文翻译：

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Zr促进的Cu/ZnO/Al2O3吸附剂超深度脱除模拟焦炉煤气中的噻吩

从焦炉煤气 (COG) 中超深度脱除噻吩对于 COG 转化为甲烷至关重要。目前，Cu/ZnO/Al2O被认为是一种有前景的噻吩去除吸附剂；但其脱硫性能目前还不能满足工业应用的要求。在此，提出了锆改性策略来克服这个问题，使得负载锆的铜基吸附剂（Cu/ZnO/Al2O/ZrO）具有显着改善的噻吩去除性能和高活性。表征结果表明，锆改善了铜的分散性和吸附剂表面路易斯酸位点的浓度。 ZrO浓度为2%时，Cu-Zn相互作用增强，Cu在吸附剂表面的分散度达到最大值（49.20%）。此外，路易斯酸强度也被最大化，这大大提高了脱硫活性，并导致噻吩（Q）的吸附容量突破36.24 mg/g，比未改性的Cu/ZnO/Al2O的吸附容量高约17%吸附剂。这些结果表明，吸附剂的硫容量可以通过增加其表面酸性位点的数量来提高，为工业应用中超深度去除噻吩铺平了道路。