Simultaneous Recovery of Nickel and Aluminium from Spent Reformer Catalyst

By Dipak J. Garole and A. D. Sawant

June 2005
The Author is Research Scholar at the Institute of Science in Mumbai, India. The Paper was
presented at the 23rd annual conference of the Indian Council of Chemist, at K.C. College,
University of Mumbai. Prof. Arun Sawant, Pro Vice Chancellor of The Mumbai University, is
the guiding teacher.
Large quantities of spent nickel catalysts are available from fertilizer, petrochemical,
vegetable oil and other industries. Disposal of spent catalyst is a problem as it falls under
category of hazardous industrial waste. The recovery of metals from these catalysts is an
important economic aspect as most of these catalysts are supported catalyst usually with
alumina / silica with varying percent of industrially important element nickel, in the reference
catalysts alone; nickel concentration varies from 2.5-20%. A spent reformer catalyst was
treated with caustic soda solution of varying concentrations at temperature 90-100C for
different times to dissolve aluminium as sodium aluminate. The recovery of aluminium was
97.4%. The residue was digested with aqua-regia for different time period at 90-100C. The
recovery of nickel obtained was 95-96% in the form of NiSO 4.7H2O.
Keywords: Separation; Nickel and Aluminium recovery; Spent catalyst.
Introduction
Metals like Ni, Mo, Co, Rh, Pt, Pd, etc., are widely used as a catalyst in chemical and
petrochemical industries. They are generally supported on porous materials like alumina and
silica through precipitation or impregnation processes. In many of the cases, the metals are
in the form of oxides, however, in the other cases, they are reduced into active metals for
catalyzing the appropriate reactions. After periodical use of the catalysts, due to poisoning
effect of foreign material and impurities, which deposit on the surface of the catalyst, they will
become inactive. In such cases, fresh catalysts have to be substituted and the spent catalyst
will be discarded as waste material.
Disposal of such catalyst materials, which contains appreciable amounts of heavy metals, is
environmentally hazardous. Therefore, a suitable and economically viable method is required
for recovery of metals at the same time method should not pose the risk of environmental
hazards. Therefore, recovery of nickel and aluminium from such catalyst attracted the
attention of investigators.
Various processes have been developed by number of researchers. Amad et al. (1970)
studied recovery of nickel from spent hydrogenation catalyst by digestion of it with different
acids. Recovery of nickel with inorganic acid was 85-94.5%, however, with HCOOH it was
80-5% and with ACOH about 65-8%. Tiwari et al. (1972) reported dry carbonylation process
as well as wet extraction with acids for different types of nickel catalyst. The carbonylation
process recovered 90-98% of the nickel metal and NiO where as extraction with HNO 3 and
HNO3-HCl mixture recovered 65-99% of the metal and its oxide depending on the nature of
catalyst. The poor recovery by acid treatment in some cases was attributed to the higher
amount of NiAl2O4 and NiSiO3, which has higher resistance towards acid leaching. Shinohara
et al. (1976) studied leaching of spent catalyst with caustic soda solution and treating the
residue with sulfuric acid solution for recovery of nickel. Drule minela liana et al. (1979)
studied spent catalyst fused with NaOH and NaNO 3 and treated the residue with H2SO4 for
recovery of nickel. Loboiko et al. (1983) studied leaching of nickel oxide with 60-70% nitric
acid concentration at 120C for 2-3 h. Manoliu et al. (1985) studied leaching of spent nickel
catalyst first with 50% NaOH in autoclave at 150-175C to dissolve Al as Na-aluminate. The

residue treated with HNO3 (1:1) at 60C to dissolve nickel in the solution. Vicol et al. (1986)
studied leaching of spent catalyst with an aqueous solution of 15-23% ammonia at 60-90C
at pH 7.5-9 and nickel was recovered as nickel nitrate. Sinka et al. (1988) studied extraction
of nickel from spent nickel catalyst based alumina (NiO/Al 2O3) leaching with sulfuric acid
solution 90% nickel was recovered. Ganguli et al. (1988) studied spent nickel catalyst with
32% hydrochloric acid concentration at 70C and nickel recovery was found to be 96%.
Molnar et al. (1988) reported a spent hydrocracking catalyst roasted at 390C with NH 4Cl,
leaching with water at 80C and crystallization as NiCl 2 at 85% nickel yield. Pamela et al.
(1991) studied reduction roasting-sulfuric acid leaching of nickel from spent nickel catalyst.
About 98% of nickel was recovered as nickel oxide under the following conditions: sulfuric
acid concentration: 1.87 M; reaction time: 2 h.; reaction temperature 80C. Chaudhary et al.
(1993) studied leaching the low-grade spent catalyst with hydrochloric acid. They obtained
low Ni extraction efficiency (only 18%). Sibban Singh (1993) studied leaching spent nickel
catalyst with 1-3 normal nitric acid at 100C for 1-3 h. Khanna et al. (2000) studied
reclamation of nickel catalyst from spent catalyst by dry reduction method. The study
investigates the leaching aluminium and nickel from spent catalyst (NiO/Al 2O3) with caustic
soda and aqua regia. The process conditions studied include caustic soda and aqua regia
concentrations, temperature, time and solid-liquid ratio.
Experiment
Materials and Apparatus
The spent reformer catalyst used in this study was provided by RCF (India). The grayish
black rings of spent catalyst were crushed and powdered. The reagents like Na 2CO3, H2O2,
H2SO4, HCl, HNO3, NaOH, used were of AR grade. The reaction between spent catalyst and
caustic soda and aqua- regia was performed in a 500-mL round bottom flask on hot plate.
Procedure
Hundred gram of spent catalyst was added at a time to the agitated caustic soda solution
(200-mL) of the required concentration, time and temperature. The leached solution was
filtered. Aluminium was dissolved into sodium aluminate and pH was adjusted to 5-5.5 by
adding dilute sulfuric acid Aluminium precipitated as aluminium hydroxide was converted into
its oxide. The residue left after removal of aluminium is then digested with aqua-regia at
100C for 2 hrs and filtered. To the filtrate containing Ni, Fe, Al, and Mg was added H 2O2 and
Na2CO3 and pH was adjusted to 5-5.5 Al/Fe precipitates its hydroxide and its removed by
filtration. Then the pH was adjusted at 6.5 by adding NaF/HF to precipitates Mg as MgF 2 to
obtained nickel sulfate solution and its precipitate which was convert carbonate by adding
Na2CO3. The amount of sulfuric acid was added to it and recovery of nickel in the form of
nickel sulfate crystals was found to be 95-96%. The samples were analyzed for determination
of metals content using spectrophotomery and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). After
that the percentage of nickel and aluminium were calculated.
Results and Discussion
Effect of caustic soda concentration on extraction of aluminium
The effect of caustic soda concentration on leaching of spent nickel catalyst was studied
using different concentrations in the range 5-25% at a constant temperature at 80C. The
solid/ liquid ratio was kept constant at 1:2 g/mL. The results are shown in (Fig.1). The caustic
soda concentration also has a pronounced effect on the dissolution of Al 2O3. About 97.4% of
the Al present in the spent catalyst were extracted using 20% caustic soda solution after 120
min.

Effect of aqua-regia concentration on extraction of nickel

The plot of Ni extraction against aqua-regia concentration is presented in (Fig.2) The
extraction of nickel was found to be quantitatively. Higher aqua-regia concentration in range
80-100% at constant temperature 80C. The solid/liquid ratio was kept constant at 1:3 g/mL.
The aqua regia concentration also has a pronounced effect on the dissolution of NiO. About
98% of the Ni present in the spent catalyst was extracted using 80% aqua-regia solution after
120 min.

Effect of Time on Extraction of aluminium and nickel

A spent catalyst with of 20% caustic soda, 80% aqua- regia and time period in the range of
0.5-2.5 h. at a constant temperature of 80C was carried out (Fig 3). The solid/liquid ratio was
kept constant at 1:2 g/mL and 1/3g/mL. For aluminium and Nickel respectively. The time has

significant effect on dissolution of nickel aluminium oxide. After 2h leaching time 97.7% Al,
and 98% Ni were extracted.

Effect of Temperature on Extraction of aluminium and nickel

The effect of reaction temperature on Al and Ni extraction is plotted in (Fig.4) for spent
catalyst of 2h.timeb period and 20% caustic concentration and 80% aqua-regia
concentration. In the temperature range of 60-100C. The solid/liquid ratio was found to be
best for 1:2 and 1:3 g/mL for Al and Ni extractions. About 97.4% and 98% of the Al and Ni
present in the spent catalyst is extracted after 2h at a reaction temperature 90C.

Solid-Liquid ratio (S/L) on extraction of aluminium and nickel

The minimum S/L ratio of 1 /2 g/ml. was found to be sufficient for aluminium extraction and
the S/L ratio increases upto 1/3 g/ml. had no adverse effect on extraction of aluminium is
shown in Table 1.
Table 1. The effect of Solid/ Liquid ratio on leaching
efficiency and the concentration of Aluminium in the caustic
soda solution
S/L ratio {g/ml)

Recovery
(%)

1/1

96.60

1/2

97.40

1/2.5

97.40

1/3

97.40

While in case of nickel the S/L ratio 1/3 g/ml. was found to be best for nickel extraction and
the S/L ratio increases upto 1/4 g/ml.the extraction efficiency negligible. The results are
shown in Table 2.
Table 2. The effect of Solid/ Liquid ratio on leaching
efficiency and the concentration of Nickel in the aquaregia
S/L ratio {g/ml)

Recovery (%)

1/1

40.0

60.0

1/2.5

97.70

1/3

98.0

98.0

Conclusion
1. The spent catalyst needs to leached with NaOH at 90-100C to form soluble
aluminium compound and it is easy to recovery of aluminium.
2. The rate of extraction of aluminium was found maximum at temperature 80C further
increase temperature no adverse effect on aluminium extraction.
3. Very high recovery of aluminium obtained in very short time.
4. The residue left after recovery of aluminium leaching with aqua regia at a
temperature 90-100C dissolution 2 hrs. Could bring 98% of nickel in solution.
5. Recovery of nickel as NiSO4.7H2O crystals was obtained 95-96%.
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