Process for the separation and recovery of palladium and platinum from spent automobile catalyst leach liquor using LIX 84I and Alamine 336

Spent catalysts from automobile industry contain environmentally critical and economically valuable metals such as Pt, Pd, Fe, Ni, Mn, and Cr. In this paper, we present a process for the selective separation and complete recovery of palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) from hydrochloric acid leach liquors of spent automobile catalyst employing solvent extraction method. Typical composition of leach liquor used for the present study contains (mg/L): Pd-150, Pt-550, Mn-500, Ni-1000, Fe-1500, Cr-100 and 3 M HCl. Selective separation of Pd from the leach liquor is achieved with 0.5 vol.% LIX 84I (2-hydroxy-5-nonylacetophenone oxime in a mixture with a high flash point hydrocarbon diluent) in kerosene at an aqueous to organic (A/O) ratio of 3 in 2 stages, with an enrichment factor of three. Quantitative stripping of Pd from loaded organic is achieved with 0.5 M thiourea and 1 M HCl. Co-extraction of Fe and Pt with 5 vol.% Alamine 336 (tertiary amine of mixed tri-octyl/decyl amine) in kerosene followed by selective scrubbing of Fe with dilute HCl and complete stripping of Pt from loaded organic was proposed with 0.5 M thiourea and 0.1 M HCl. Purity of Pd and Pt strip solutions are 99.7%. Finally, the present process can solve environmental related issues and at the same time recover valuable metals in pure form.