Equilibrium and Kinetic Studies of Petroleum Sorption into Metal-Organic Frameworks Based on Iron and Copper Metals

The application of adsorption in the remediation of crude oil-contaminated waters is a common practice in the petroleum industry. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified as effective alternatives to the conventional sorbents. In this study, the crude oil sorption performance of MOFs based on Fe and Cu metals was analyzed using appropriate equilibrium sorption and kinetic models. Fe MOF and Cu MOF of benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid linker were tested for their crude oil sorption performance in simulation tanks. The equilibrium isotherm analysis of the experimental data showed that both Langmuir and Freundlich models fit both adsorption systems, given the closeness of the correlation coefficient, R 2 , values in both circumstances. The calculated values of adsorption intensity and maximum sorption capacity, Q m , derived from the isotherms, indicated a higher crude oil sorption capacity for Cu MOF (5.907 g/g) relative to Fe MOF (4.539 g/g). Kinetic studies gave the pseudo-second-order kinetic model as the better-fitting model when compared to the pseudo-first-order model for both MOFs. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of Fe MOF and Cu MOF as sorbents for remediation of crude oil-contaminated waters.