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Waste to Value

Title of Process/ Know-how/ Product/Design/Equipment

Palladium recovery from spent catalysts/materials

Application/Uses/Problem being addressed

Precious transition metal irons and their coordination complexes such as palladium, silver, platinum find industrial applications as supported catalysts for oxidation, hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions and performance chemicals in fine chemicals industries. Various polymeric materials modified silica, zeolite or various clay materials are used as support for these metals. It is important to recover the precious metals from the support, from ore or scrap including spent catalysts or from subsequent reaction effluent which may comprise of various remnants to the maximum extent possible once the catalyst is deactivated.

Salient Technical Features including Competing Features/ Impact

Demonstrated for one of spent catalysts of an industry that used Pd/C catalyst for hydrogenation Recovery of Pd from spent catalyst @ nearly 100% with greater than 99% purity Recovery could be possible for Pd concentration >0.1%

Developed process tolerated the presence of moisture in the range 60-80% and organics <6%, carbon support in the range 15-25%

The process for Pd recovery from used silica is demonstrated successfully at 10 kg calcined silica batch

TRL Level & Scale of Development:
TRL 4

Up to 1 Kg of spent catalyst

Business scope & opportunity (in terms of scale, cost, market etc.):

Palladium supported catalyst are used in many chemical reactions in the industry

Environmental Considerations:

Mild conditions were used for the recovery of palladium from spent catalyst as palladium chloride

Status of Licensing:
Licensed technology
Status of Commercialization:
Licensed technology

Net yet put in commercial practice

Major Raw Materials Needed

Spent catalyst having palladium, mineral acid and caustic

Major Plant Equipment and Machinery Required

Furnace with vertical column facility, leaching unit, filtration set up

Techno-Economics

It depends on the palladium content in the spent catalyst.

Technology Package

Available on request and inputs from the client; Calculated based on the scale and operational process, impurities and palladium content in the spent catalyst