Vanadium, molybdenum and nickel: A sustainability analysis of the extraction from ores versus recovery from spent catalysts

The current increasing demand of raw materials has pushed the worldwide research towards the development of innovative processes able to recover metals from end-of-life materials. Considering their content of Mo, Ni and V combined with the availability on the market, the waste hydrodesulfurization catalysts represents an interesting secondary raw material. In the perspective of the implementation of circular economy strategies, a real effective recycling must combine a high efficiency with high environmental sustainability level. With this aim, the present paper carried out a sustainability evaluation by the life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to compare an innovative recycling of catalysts with the primary production of V, Mo, and Ni. The analysis proved that the secondary production allows a CO2-eq. emission saving higher than 40 %, corresponding to a carbon credit up to around 2,000,000 $ per year, strongly linked to the kind of supplied energy (country based). The analysis further proved that the waste catalysts, can be integrated with the most common steel scraps treatment with the implementation of a successful and sustainable industry of secondary V.