1) What are the standard procedures to dispose of the catalyst dust (from regenerated and spent catalyst) from a CCR Platforming unit ?
2)Are there any adverse effects on the environment due to random disposal of the catalyst dust?
3) Is there any process to extract precious metal from the catalyst waste?
Answers
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24/06/2020
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Jake Gotham, InSite Technical Services, jake.gotham@insitetechnical.com
Answering your questions out of sequence:
1. The dust / catalyst fines are usually collected in sealed drums and sent away for precious metal recovery when there is sufficient quantity to justify the logistics.
3. There are various companies who can recover precious metals from spent catalyst and catalyst dust. Sabin, Johnson Matthey and Heraeus are examples.
2. Catalyst is hazardous to the environment, and should be shipped and disposed of as hazardous waste if recovery is not possible for some reason. Given the value of precious metals, this would be extremely wasteful.
Refineries usually maintain a precious metals register to track the inventory in each process unit and warehouse, and assign a process engineer to supervise activities like catalyst loading/unloading/screening to ensure every drum is accounted for.
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23/06/2020
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Dipankar Phukan, Indian Oil Corporation, dipankarphukan79@yahoo.com
Normally the spent catalyst along with dust is sent for metal recovery after proper sampling and weighing as it contains platinum. There are vendors who deal with precious metal recovery. You may either get the platinum recovered and delivered to you through them or they may purchase the spent catalyst right away, price based on the metal content. In fact the sampling and weighing is also a special task and carried out by only a few vendors like Inspectorate, Alfred H Knight who provide their services internationally. Once the quantity of platinum in catalyst is determined there are lot of vendors who would be ready to take the spent catalyst. These include some catalyst suppliers as well.
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22/06/2020
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Eric Vetters, ProCorr Consulting Services, ewvetters@yahoo.com
The catalyst fines generated contain highly valued platinum. You do not want to throw it away. Instead you need to send it off to a reclaimer who can recover the platinum. It is economic to do so, so the environmental question becomes a moot point.
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