Sulfuric Acid Leaching of Valuable Metals from Spent Petrochemical Catalyst using Hydrogen Peroxide as a Reducing Agent

The spent petrochemical catalyst used in the manufacturing process of terephthalic-acid contains valuable metals such as cobalt and manganese. To recover these metals, sulfuric acid leaching was performed with hydrogen peroxide as a reducing agent. Low extractions of Mn, Co and Fe were obtained by sulfuric acid leaching without reducing agent. With adding hydrogen peroxide as a reducing agent, the high extraction of these metals could be obtained. Different from general leaching experiment, the extraction rates of metal components were decreased with increasing reaction temperature in this case. Under the optimum condition, the extraction rates of Mn, Co and Fe were 93.0%, 87.0% and 100% respectively.