Recuperación de titanio a partir de catalizadores agotados de la unidad FCC, mediante lixiviación selectiva

Abstract

Nowadays, 60 tons per month are produced as spent catalyst waste from the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC) of the Esmeraldas State Refinery (REE) being discarded in landfills and causing environmental pollution, through this research a final treatment of these wastes is carried out; the objective of the research project is the recovery of Titanium (Ti) from spent catalysts from FCC of the REE. The implemented methodology was hydrometallurgy by means of acid leaching working with; organic and inorganic acids in the influence of the leaching agent, at 1 M, 2 M, and 3 M in the influence of the concentration, at 6, 12 and 24 hours as leaching times, at 1 %, 10 % and 20 % in percentages of solids (amount of catalyst exhausted) and thermal treatment prior leaching with the best conditions obtained for the recovery of Ti. By means of this methodology, 99.88 % of Ti was recovered by leaching with tartaric acid at 3 M, 1 % of solids and 12 hours without previous thermal treatment, based on the results obtained, the design of the leaching tank was carried out. It is concluded that more than 99% recovery is achieved with tartaric acid and that the design achieves the recovery of 0.4 tons of Ti per month for commercial sale, in addition to the possibility of recovering other abundant elements such as Silicon, Aluminum and Lanthanum in the final treatment of the FCC spent catalyst.