Recovery of HCL from chloride leach solution of spent HDS catalyst by solvent extraction

In the present work, amine based extractant and its mixture with cationic and solvating extractants were tested for the extraction of HCl from chloride solution containing Al(III). The chloride feed solution resulted from the leaching of spent HDS (hydro-desulfurization) catalysts. For this purpose, amine extractants, such as TOA (trioctyl amine), Alamine 336 (a mixture of tri-octyl/decyl amine), Alamine 308 (tri-isooctyl amine), and TEHA (tri 2-ethylhexyl amine) were used and the extraction and stripping behavior of HCl was compared. The extracted HCl was easily stripped from loaded TEHA phase, when compared with the other tested tertiary amine system. Solvent extraction reaction of HCl by TEHA was determined from the extraction data. Unlike TOA and Alamine 336, adding cationic extractant to TEHA had negligible effect on the extraction and stripping of HCl. In our experimental ranges, no Al was extracted by amines and pure HCl was recovered. MaCabe-Thiele diagrams for the extraction and stripping of HCl by TEHA were constructed.