Platinum recovery from a spent industrial dehydrogenation catalyst using cyanide leaching followed by ion exchange Original Research Article

Recovery of platinum from a selective linear paraffin dehydrogenation spent catalyst is reported using cyanide leaching method followed by adsorption of the cyanide platinum complex onto an anionic resin. The resin on which the platinum complex is adsorbed is dried and burned in an oxidizing atmosphere at 800–850 °C. The recovered metallic powder is mainly platinum. Results show that presence of coke does not have adverse effect on platinum recovery in cyanide leaching process, and in practice there is no need for decoking of spent catalysts in this method. Various parameters of interest are studied and the optimum conditions for highest platinum recovery are reported.