Recovering Precious Metals from Catalytic Scrap
In 2000, during an attempt by the Russians to corner the palladium market, which increased the price of palladium from $100 per Troy ounce to over $1,000 per Troy ounce in less than 6 months, Engelhard Corporation (EC) decided to build an onshore facility to provide a recyclable product as a feed for its Seneca, SC, hydrometallurgical processing plant for it to stay profitable. Representatives from EC asked scientists from ARC’s Thermal Treatment Technologies Division if they were capable of developing a process to convert spent catalytic materials from the petroleum and transportation industries into a recyclable metallic product. Lengthy negotiations resulted in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Engelhard and ARC.
Engelhard’s goals for the project were that 1) the recovery of the precious metals be greater than 93 percent, 2) the product be an appropriate feed form (i.e., finely divided) for the EC proprietary hydrometallurgical process that results in individual precious metals as products, 3) the process be scalable with enough engineering data to design and build the plant in Seneca, and 4) the process be of a sufficient scale that the EC could send its own crew to be trained in the performance of this process.
Over the next 18 months, a pyrometallurgical process was developed that yielded over $15 million in recovered precious metals. A practical granulation system was developed that produced a product suitable for EC’s in-house process. A plant was designed and built and is currently operated by EC in Seneca. Because of its success, the plant is now undergoing a doubling of its capacity.
Recovering Precious Metals from Catalytic Scrap
In 2000, during an attempt by the Russians to corner the palladium market, which increased the price of palladium from $100 per Troy ounce to over $1,000 per Troy ounce in less than 6 months, Engelhard Corporation (EC) decided to build an onshore facility to provide a recyclable product as a feed for its Seneca, SC, hydrometallurgical processing plant for it to stay profitable. Representatives from EC asked scientists from ARC’s Thermal Treatment Technologies Division if they were capable of developing a process to convert spent catalytic materials from the petroleum and transportation industries into a recyclable metallic product. Lengthy negotiations resulted in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Engelhard and ARC.
Engelhard’s goals for the project were that 1) the recovery of the precious metals be greater than 93 percent, 2) the product be an appropriate feed form (i.e., finely divided) for the EC proprietary hydrometallurgical process that results in individual precious metals as products, 3) the process be scalable with enough engineering data to design and build the plant in Seneca, and 4) the process be of a sufficient scale that the EC could send its own crew to be trained in the performance of this process.
Over the next 18 months, a pyrometallurgical process was developed that yielded over $15 million in recovered precious metals. A practical granulation system was developed that produced a product suitable for EC’s in-house process. A plant was designed and built and is currently operated by EC in Seneca. Because of its success, the plant is now undergoing a doubling of its capacity.