Abstract
A laboratory-scale procedure was developed to obtain lanthanum oxide from spent fluid catalytic cracking catalyst, commonly used in the heavy crude oil cracking process. Two different solids, consisting mainly of silica, alumina, and a certain amount of rare earth elements, were leached under several conditions to recover the rare earths. Nitric acid leaching lead to the highest recovery of lanthanum, reaching a recovery percentage greater than 95% when a 1.5 M concentration was used. Subsequently, liquid phases were subjected to a liquid–liquid extraction process using Cyanex 923 diluted in Solvesso 100, and the lanthanum was quantitatively extracted. Lanthanum was also quantitatively stripped using oxalic acid to obtain the corresponding lanthanum oxalates, as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. After thermal treatment at 1200 °C for 2 h, these solids yielded lanthanum oxide.
Highlights
Fluid catalytic cracking is a widely used process in crude oil processing in petroleum refineries, to ‘crack’ the heavy crude oil into lighter products under the action of catalysts at high temperatures [1,2]
The fluid catalytic cracking catalysts powders (FCC) catalyst process was established in the last century in order to improve gasoline production and increase the octane number of the fuel [3]
Due to the relatively high amounts of alumina and silica in spent FCC catalysts, an attractive option for decreasing the environmental impact generated by their final disposal is their recycling as feedstock for mullite refractories
Summary
Fluid catalytic cracking is a widely used process in crude oil processing in petroleum refineries, to ‘crack’ the heavy crude oil into lighter products under the action of catalysts at high temperatures [1,2]. Due to the relatively high amounts of alumina and silica in spent FCC catalysts, an attractive option for decreasing the environmental impact generated by their final disposal is their recycling as feedstock for mullite refractories. Such an application would allow large volumes of material to be recycled and conserve large volumes of minerals [14]. Due to their unique physicochemical properties, REEs are indispensable elements in the high technology industry and are widely used in a variety of advanced applications [2,4,15] Due to their wide variety of uses in electrical and electronic technology development, the demand for rare earths is increasing day-to-day, indicating that natural resources requirements will continue to increase [16]. Lanthanum stripped in the liquid phase was precipitated, and the solid formed was thermally treated to obtain pure lanthanum oxide as product
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