Recovery of Platinum from Spent Petroleum Catalysts by Substrate Dissolution in Sulfuric Acid

Spent catalysts containing platinum were generated in petroleum refinery and other chemical industries. The reclamation of precious metals from such wastes has long been attempted in view of their rare, expensive and indispensable nature. In this study, the recovery of platinum from petroleum catalysts was attempted by a method consisting mainly of dissolving alumina substrate with sulfuric acid thereby concentrating insoluble platinum. Also, platinum dissolved partially in sulfuric acid was recovered by a cementation method using aluminum metal as a reductive agent. The effect of temperature, time, concentration of sulfuric acid. and pulp density on the dissolution of substrate was investigated. When the substrate of platinum catalyst was ${\gamma}$-AI$_2$O$_3$ about 95% alumina was dissolved in 6.0M sulfuric acid at 10$0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours. When the substrate was the mixture of ${\gamma}$-A1$_2$O$_3$and $\alpha$-A1$_2$O$_3$about 92% was dissolved after 4 hours. As a result, more than 99% of platinum could be recovered by this method and aluminum sulfate was obtained as byproduct.