Commercialization of Eco-tech
The R&D Center for Valuable Recycling of the Ministry of Environment of South Korea announced on July 22 that it developed a technique for minimizing the amount of secondary wastes resulting from valuable metal recovery using a waste denitrification catalyst.
In addition, the R&D Center signed an agreement with the Korea Western Power Corporation (KOWEPO) on July 22 for the commercial use of this technique in a pilot project. This technique is the world’s first waste denitrification catalyst recycling technique based on resource recycling.
Up to now, waste denitrification catalysts have been discarded due to the lack of recycling technology. With this technique, however, valuable metals contained in waste denitrification catalysts, such as tungsten and vanadium, can be recovered in the form of high-purity metal compounds like ammonium para-tungstate and ammonium metavanadate and titanium dioxide as a carrier can also be produced into a high-added value product through purity enhancement. In other words, this technique allows more than 90% of a waste denitrification catalyst to be reused and the obtained valuable metals can be further utilized as a cemented carbide material or a denitrification catalyst.
In the three-year pilot project, the KOWEPO is to supply waste denitrification catalysts to the R&D Center so that the materials can be put to commercial use through research processes. “This eco-friendly technique is expected to contribute to the procurement of rare metals down the road,” the R&D Center explained.