Selective recovery of aluminium, cobalt and platinum values from a spent catalyst composition

Abstract

The invention provides a process for the selective recovery of aluminium, cobalt and platinum, and compounds thereof, from a catalyst composition including aluminium, cobalt and platinum, said proscess including the steps of treating the catalyst composition to selectively get ions of substantially only one of the aluminium. cobalt and platinum into solution, recovering, in separate process steps, the thus treated aluminium, cobalt, or platinum in salt or metal form, and repeating the treating and recovering steps for each of the aluminium, cobalt and platinum. The treating steps may include process steps such as leaching, washing, dissolving, stripping, and the like. The recovery steps may include filtration, precipitation, separation, flocculation, and the like.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to the selective recovery of metal values from a spent catalyst composition. In particular this invention relates to a process for the selective recovery of aluminium, Cobalt and Platinum and / or compounds thereof, from a spent catalyst composition.BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION[0002] The specific spent catalyst composition of the current invention is obtained from Fischer Tropsch synthesis reactions for the production of predominantly paraffinic hydrocarbons.[0003] The catalyst is an impregnated Fischer Tropsch Catalyst comprising an alumina carrier and active component selected from the group consisting of cobalt and / or iron and mixtures thereof. The catalyst may also comprise of a group VIII noble metal as promoter.[0004] The Fischer-Tropsch process is used to produce hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In the Fischer-Tropsch process, a cobalt catalyst may be used to activate the catalytic reaction. This catalyst may be prepared with a cobalt...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

As a result of the organic content in the catalyst coupled with the fact that both cobalt and platinum are considered to be environmentally toxic, dumping is not a viable option.

In this method, which is very expensive, the pollutants like heavy and base metals can react with cement or pozzolanic materials to form water insoluble compounds.

Cobalt and platinum are currently considered to be environmentally toxic and thus dumping of this leached residue is not a viable option.