Abstract: The low cost spherical activated carbon (KAC) was prepared by pretreatment, carbonization and KOH activation with deactivated MTBE resin catalyst as the precursor. The KAC prepared at the optimal KOH activation conditions of a base/carbon mass ratio of 4:1, an activation temperature of 800 ℃, and an activation time of 1 h, has a specific surface area of 2 769 m²/g with the total pore volume of 1.871 cm³/g. The Cu-KAC adsorbent was prepared by incipient impregnation method. The test showed that the adsorptive desulfurization performance of the adsorbent on LPG could be significantly improved by the modification of copper ions. The desulfurization performance of the adsorbent was the best when the load of copper ions was 10% and the adsorbent was calcinated at 400℃ for 2 h in N2.The results of methyl disulfide -TPD analysis showed that Cu-KAC adsorbent had stronger complexation adsorption capacity for DMDS than KAC. The regeneration performance of Cu-KAC adsorbent showed that the desulfurization rate of LPG could reach 60% after four times of regeneration at 400 ℃ for 2 h in N2.

Key words: activated carbon, deactivated resin catalyst, adsorption desulfurization, dimethyl sulfide, transition metals