Catalyst Wastes
Catalyst wastes, including both auto catalytic converters and industrial catalysts, e.g. petrochemical catalyst, contain precious metals and specifically the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) that are valuable due to their low natural abundance, unique properties and the complex processes that are required for their extraction and refining from primary sources.
Whilst PGMs are found as naturally occurring ores, these metals may also be obtained by recycling PGM bearing wastes. When recycled, these waste streams are typically orders of magnitude richer in PGMs than their naturally occurring ore equivalents, helping to conserve natural resources and balance supply and demand. Therefore, it is both financially beneficial and environmentally responsible to recycle spent catalysts.
How Tetronics can help unlock value from this process
Tetronics has extensive experience in the delivery of metal recovery plants specifically designed for the recovery of PGMs from catalyst wastes.
The process chemistry in Tetronics’ patented plasma waste recovery technology is designed to smelt and preferentially separate the precious metals from the less valuable material, which is vitrified into an inert, safe, disposable non‐hazardous material in a single processing step. The high specific values of these waste streams provide a compelling justification for investment in a plasma based precious metal recovery plant; capital payback is typically achieved within 1–2 years at waste throughputs of 1,500–2,000 tonnes per year. We are confident that Tetronics technology offers the best technical and commercial solution for this process application at a scale appropriate for the industry. The robust level of construction and minimal number of moving components delivers outstanding plant longevity. The recovery process also has exceptional environmental and commercial credentials and can be considered as a future‐proof solution for catalyst waste management problems.
Contact Tetronics to find out how we can assist with metal recycling from your spent catalysts.
Downloads
Download Tetronics’ full Precious Metal Recovery datasheet.
