Catalyst disposal - an environmentally sound solution
- CRI International, Baltimore, MD (USA)
The burgeoning use of hydrotreating catalysts has resulted, over the years, in a market for the recovery of valuable metals, primarily molybdenum and vanadium. The driving force behind this market has always been the price of the recovered metal products, hence the players in these earlier processes tended to be metals-oriented rather than catalyst-oriented. Thus, as the prices of these metal products rose or fell, recovery operations sprung up or shut down to strip off easily and economically recoverable metals only, leaving behind the bulk of the catalyst in the form of non-recoverable alumina, cobalt, nickel, carbonaceous deposits, and other trace impurities. If the price of metals fell too low, often the only option for spent catalyst generators was landfill disposal. It was obvious as environmental laws got increasingly more stringent and as catalyst use has further increased that the environmentally sound solution to the problem of spent catalyst disposal would be to completely recycle the catalyst, leaving no residue. Only through using a total recycle process could generators expect to reduce their liabilities to the market need, CRI Ventures, a world leader in catalyst technology, joined forces with AMAX, Inc., a leading producer of metal products, to form CRI-MET. The charter of CRI-MET was clear: to develop a process whereby spent hydrotreating catalysts are recycled to extinction in an environmentally superior fashion hence minimizing generator liability. These goals were totally accomplished using a patented, proprietary process.
- OSTI ID:
- 5282423
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8708313--
- Journal Information:
- American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, Preprints; (USA), Journal Name: American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, Preprints; (USA) Vol. 32:3; ISSN 0569-3799; ISSN ACPCA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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