An integrated refinery process for the gasification of an active metal-containing spent coked catalyst for the production of synthesis gas and the recovery of active metal compounds, the process comprising:
- a. providing an active metal-containing spent coked catalyst, containing one or more active phase metals from the periodic table IUPAC group 4-12 deposited on or otherwise incorporated in an amorphous and/or structured support, wherein the spent coked catalyst provided in step (a) is substantially free of vanadium and nickel porphyrin compounds and is derived from hydroprocessing of a feedstock that is a fraction of crude that does not contain contaminant metals vanadium and nickel that naturally occur in the crude oil, said feedstock selected from the group consisting of naphtha, diesel, vacuum gas oil that has been subjected to hydrodemetallization treatment prior to hydroprocessing, and vacuum residue that has been subjected to hydrodemetallization treatment prior to hydroprocessing;
- b. grinding the spent coked catalyst to produce a free-flowing mass of ground spent catalyst particles;
- c. mixing the ground spent catalyst particles with a fluid carrier stream to form a pressurized, fluidized spent catalyst particulate feedstream;
- d. injecting the fluidized spent catalyst particulate feedstream into the combustion chamber of a cold-wall tubular membrane wall partial oxidation gasification reactor in the presence of a predetermined amount of oxygen and steam;
- e. operating the gasification reactor at a temperature in the range of from 900° to 1700° C. and a pressure from 20 to 100 bars;
- f. subjecting the fluidized spent catalyst particulate feedstream to partial oxidation to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the spent coked catalyst, and a slag material comprising the remnants of the spent coked catalyst containing the active metal compounds;
- g. recovering the hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the reactor in the form of a hot synthesis gas;
- h. recovering the slag material from the reactor as a solid material;
- i. preparing the slag material for leaching;
- j. contacting the prepared slag material with an aqueous leaching solution to solubilize the one or more active phase metals in the leaching solution;
- k. separating the leaching solution containing the one or more solubilized metal compounds from any remaining solid depleted slag material;
- and
- l. recovering the one or more solubilized active phase metal compounds from the leaching solution.