Industrial
deactivated Ag/alumina catalysts contain an appreciable
amount of silver. As silver is a precious metal, it is of great economic
and environmental interest to recover silver from the catalysts before
disposing them. This paper introduces a novel hybrid process for efficient
silver recovery from deactivated catalysts. The process combines leaching
and emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) techniques. Leaching first transfers
silver from catalyst particles to an aqueous solution. An ELM then
extracts silver ions from the leach solution in a single separation
step. To prevent emulsion instability in the ELM, a new surfactant,
a relatively low number-average-molecular-weight (<6000 g/mol)
polypropylene glycol-polyethylene glycol-polypropylene glycol triblock
copolymer, was synthesized and characterized by 1HNMR, 13CNMR, FTIR, and GPC. While preventing the instability, this
surfactant did not have any adverse effects on mass transfer. For
the first time, 2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid was used as the carrier
in an ELM to facilitate silver ions transfer from the aqueous solution.
A solvent consisting of paraffinic and naphthenic hydrocarbons with
no aromatic components was used as the diluent. Compatibilities of
the ELM components (diluent, surfactant and carrier) were evaluated
using two stability methods. Ag, Ca, Si, Al, Ti, and K leaching efficiencies
of 97.7, 40.0, 30.0, 15.0, 6.0 and 0.5%, respectively, were achieved
at the following optimal conditions: a nitric acid concentration of
1 mol L–1, a solid/liquid ratio of 50 g L–1, a mixing speed of 500 rpm, and a temperature of 70 °C. The
ELM showed a maximum Ag separation efficiency of 97% with an Ag-ion
extraction time of 7.5 min, a surfactant concentration of 6% (w/v),
an HNO3 strip-phase concentration of 0.6 M, a feed-phase
pH of 6.5, a mixing speed of 500 rpm, a treatment ratio of 75/500,
and a phase ratio of 6/5. This study points to the high potential
of the hybrid process for sustainable recovery of silver from deactivated
catalysts.