Spent Catalyst Recycling

Spent catalysts discarded from chemical and petrochemical industry are classified as hazardous solid waste due to the presence of metals and organic contaminants from industrial processes. Whereas spent catalysts represent an alternative source for metals extraction. Therefore, the laboratory investigates the potentiality and limitations for the recovery of metals and non-metallic materials of high added value present in these spent catalysts.

Investigation of catalyst recovery begins with understanding the processes in which it was used, the contaminants present, and the reason for their disposal. Thereafter, a recovery route for the metals of interest is developed for each catalyst type.

The metals of interest for recovery include cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and lanthanum. The research group has developed routes for recycling 17 different catalysts to determine the most important technical indices of the process in addition to flow diagrams, yields and mass balances of the developed processes.