The doctoral thesis discussion was conducted for Yousra Saber Kareem/ Lecturer in the Department of Prosthesis and orthosis Engineering /Al-Nahrain University at the University of Baghdad / College of Engineering in 23/12/2024.

The thesis is entitled:

Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Ordered Mesoporous Support for Hydrodesulfurization of Iraqi Gas Oil

This work deals with the Hydrodesulfurization of Iraqi gas oil with 14089 ppm sulfur content obtained from the Al-Dora refinery using prepared NiMo/SBA-15 and NiMoW/SBA-15 mesoporous catalysts.

   The successful synthesis of sodium silicate, a key component used as a silica source during the preparation of SBA-15, was achieved using 84% silica-rich sand located in the western desert of Iraq by dry fusion method. The effect of NaOH/sand weight ratios between 1 -1.4 at different fusion temperatures between 400 - 600°C on the properties of synthesized sodium silicate was studied. For comparison, commercial sodium silicate obtained from Aldrich was used. 

   It was concluded that NiMoW/SBA-15 has higher activity for HDS of gas oil than NiMo/SBA-15. The sulfur removal percentages reached their optimum values of 60, and 75% using NiMo/SBA-15, and NiMoW/SBA-15 respectively at conditions of 350°C, and LHSV 1hr-1.

   The Hydrodesulfurization data fitted a second-order kinetic model. The activation energies of HDS of gas oil were 33, and 50.47 KJ/mole using NiMo/SBA-15, and NiMoW/SBA-15 respectively.