Abstract
There has been a substantially increasing demand for energy critical elements (ECEs) in recent years as energy-related technology has advanced rapidly. Spent catalysts are known as potential sources of ECCs such as Ni, Co, Mo, W, V, and rare earth elements. This study developed a novel environmentally friendly process for recovering cobalt and molybdenum from spent hydroprocessing catalysts using deep eutectic solvents (DESs). DESs based on p-toluenesulfonic acid achieved high metal extraction at 100 °C and a pulp density of 20 g/L for 48 h which 93% of cobalt and 87% of molybdenum were dissolved. FT-IR and H-NMR analyses were conducted to determine whether hydrogen bonds form between p-toluenesulfonic acid-based DES components. Leaching kinetic models were also developed for DES systems. The experimental results were well-matched with the shrinking core models. The leaching controlling step of DES-1 was determined to be the diffusion through the product layer based on kinetic studies, with an activation energy of 22.56 kJ/mol for Co and 29.34 kJ/mol for Mo in DES-1. Similarly, the mixed control reaction with an activation energy of 38.09 kJ/mol for Co and 31.48 kJ/mol for Mo in DES-2 was found to control the leaching kinetic mechanism of the DES-2 sample.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge with thanks the Staff of the Mineral Processing Laboratory of the University of Tehran for their technical support.
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Ehsan Ebrahimi: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, funding acquisition, software, formal analysis, validation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, and resources. Hassan Safari: investigation, methodology, validation, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition. Mohammad Rezaee: investigation, methodology, validation, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition. Ali Rezaei: resources and equipment. Hadi Abdollahi: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, validation, and resources.
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Ebrahimi, E., Safari, H., Rezaee, M. et al. An environmentally friendly method for extraction of cobalt and molybdenum from spent catalysts using deep eutectic solvents (DESs). Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 90243–90255 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26806-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26806-8