The development of a techno-economic model for the assessment of vanadium recovery from bitumen upgrading spent catalyst

Abstract

Spent catalyst from bitumen upgrading contains a substantial amount of vanadium. Recovering this vanadium can contribute to meeting the global demand. However, there are no studies on the economic feasibility of vanadium recovery plants, which is critical for decision makers. In this research, a techno-economic assessment of a vanadium recovery process was performed to bridge that gap. Data intensive process models were developed to understand the mass and energy balances of the vanadium recovery process. Capital and operating costs were estimated from material and energy balances. The recovery cost of vanadium was estimated using the developed techno-economic models, including the revenue for selling the co-products and by-products of the process. The economies of the scale and the effect of co-product and by-product selling price on the vanadium recovery cost were also studied. We found that for a plant capacity of 30,000 tonnes of spent catalyst per year, the vanadium recovery cost is $9.89/kg V2O5. For a market price of $12.00/kg V2O5, the minimum profitable capacity is about 22,400 tonnes of spent catalyst per year, and molybdenum trioxide is the co-product whose selling price has the most influence on the vanadium recovery cost. The results show that for spent catalyst generated in bitumen upgrading operations, the recovery of vanadium is potentially profitable considering the current vanadium market price. The developed information is useful for the decision makers in making investment decisions and policy formulation.