Metals recovery from spent supported catalyst
AssigneeChevron U.S.A. Inc.
InventorsRahul Shankar Bhaduri, Oleg A. Mironov, Alexander E. Kuperman
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Abstract
An improved method for recovering metals from spent supported catalysts, including spent supported hydroprocessing catalysts. The method and associated processes comprising the method are useful to recover spent supported catalyst metals used in the petroleum and chemical processing industries. The method generally involves a combination of a pyrometallurgical and a hydrometallurgical method and includes forming a potassium carbonate calcine from the spent supported catalyst containing Group VIIIB/Group VIB/Group VB metal compound(s) combined with potassium carbonate, and extracting and recovering soluble Group VIB metal and soluble Group VB metal compounds from the potassium carbonate calcine.
Claims40
A method for recovering metals from a deoiled spent supported catalyst, wherein the catalyst comprises a Group VIB metal, a Group VIIIB metal, a Group VB metal and a catalyst support material, the method comprising:
- combining a deoiled spent supported catalyst comprising Group VIIIB, Group VIB, and Group VB metals with potassium carbonate to form a deoiled spent catalyst/potassium carbonate mixture;
- heating the deoiled spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate mixture under oxidative conditions to reduce the levels of sulfur and carbon and to form a spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine comprising a water-soluble Group VIB metal compound, a water-soluble Group VB metal compound and a water-insoluble Group VIIIB metal compound;
- combining the spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine with water under slurry leach process conditions to form a spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine slurry and to leach the water-soluble Group VIB metal compound and the water-soluble Group VB metal compound from the spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine;
- separating and removing a filtrate and a solid residue from the spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine slurry, the filtrate comprising the water-soluble Group VIB metal compound and the water-soluble Group VB metal compound and the solid residue comprising the water-insoluble Group VIIIB metal compound;
- and
- recovering the water-soluble Group VIB metal compound and the water-soluble Group VB metal compound from the filtrate of the spent supported catalyst/potassium carbonate calcine slurry.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.