Cost estimate for muddy water palladium production facility at Mound

Abstract

An economic feasibility study was performed on the ''Muddy Water'' low-chlorine content palladium powder production process developed by Mound. The total capital investment and total operating costs (dollars per gram) were determined for production batch sizes of 1--10 kg in 1-kg increments. The report includes a brief description of the Muddy Water process, the process flow diagram, and material balances for the various production batch sizes. Two types of facilities were evaluated--one for production of new, ''virgin'' palladium powder, and one for recycling existing material. The total capital investment for virgin facilities ranged from $600,000 --$1.3 million for production batch sizes of 1--10 kg, respectively. The range for recycle facilities was $1--$2.3 million. The total operating cost for 100% acceptable powder production in the virgin facilities ranged from $23 per gram for a 1-kg production batch size to $8 per gram for a 10-kg batch size. Similarly for recycle facilities, the total operating cost ranged from $34 per gram to $5 per gram. The total operating cost versus product acceptability (ranging from 50%--100% acceptability) was also evaluated for both virgin and recycle facilities. Because production sizes studied vary widely and because scale-up factors are unknown for batch sizes greater thanmore » 1 kg, all costs are ''order-of-magnitude'' estimates. All costs reported are in 1987 dollars.« less