Metaux Speciaux S.a.

Andre Roth

Guy Gravey

Herman Castagna

Paul Grolla

A process of recovering molybdenum in the form of molybdic acid from waste products and particularly from spent catalysts containing a support based on gamma-alumina wherein the molybdenum is in the form of molybdenum oxide or molybdenum sulfide comprising treating the waste products with sodium carbonate and heating to convert the molybdenum present to sodium molybdate, and converting the sodium molybdate to molybdic acid by treatment with concentrated nitric acid to produce molybdic acid high in purity that is suitable for the production of molybdenum compounds as well as for the recovery of the pure metal.

Process for recovering molybdenum values from spent catalysts

A process of recovering molybdenum from waste products and particularly from spent catalyst based on active alumina and containing molybdenum compounds comprising mixing the spent catalyst with sodium carbonate powder, adding water and remixing to absorb the water in the catalyst particles, baking the mixture to convert the molybdenum present to sodium molybdate, treating the mixture at ambient temperature with carbon dioxide gas, treating the resultant mixture with hot water to dissolve the sodium molybdate, neutralizing and clarifying with concentrated nitric acid, and precipitating to produce molybdic acid high in purity that is suitable for the production of molybdenum compounds as well as for the recovery of the pure metal.

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Moutiers, France

Andre Roth