Abstract

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is a critical technology for producing clean petroleum products. With the steady growth in annual crude oil processing volumes, the consumption of HDS catalysts has been continuously increasing. The massive release of spent catalysts imposes significant pressure on both the environmental compliance and sustainable operation of companies. Spent HDS catalysts contain relatively high concentrations of valuable metals such as Mo, Ni, V, and Co. These materials are toxic and harmful heavy metal pollutants, yet they also constitute an important secondary resource of strategic metals with extremely high recycling value. Based on a systematic comparison of relevant recovery technologies, this paper reviews the current status of valuable metal recovery from spent HDS catalysts. It summarizes typical process routes for the full-component recovery of valuable metals and discusses future research directions, with the aim of providing a theoretical reference for the high-value resource utilization of spent HDS catalysts.

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