Environmental Impact Assessment of Waste Catalyst (RDS,  PDH) Recycling

Jihyoung Park; Inho Kwak; Hansol Lee; Hyehyeon Kim; Younghwan Chu; Myoungsun Park

doi:10.32390/ksmer.2026.63.4.406

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2026 Vol.63, Issue 4 Preview Page Next Page

Research Paper

Environmental Impact Assessment of Waste Catalyst (RDS, PDH) Recycling 폐촉매(RDS, PDH) 재자원화 환경영향 평가

31 August 2026. pp. 406-416

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Abstract

This study evaluated resource circulation strategies for spent residue desulfurization (RDS) and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) catalysts within a common life-cycle assessment framework. For the RDS catalyst, the existing regeneration process was compared with an improved process that incorporated a heat-exchanger network redesign based on exergy and pinch analyses. For the PDH catalyst, recovered alumina was compared with virgin alumina on an equal mass basis. Using EF 3.1 and a cradle-to-gate boundary, the climate-change impact of the improved RDS process decreased from 19.83 to 18.39 kg CO₂ eq./kg, a 7.26% reduction. In contrast, recovered PDH alumina showed a climate-change impact of 14.45 kg CO₂ eq./kg, compared with 1.54 kg CO₂ eq./kg for virgin alumina, and higher impacts in all 14 comparable categories. Therefore, environmental benefits depend on energy and auxiliary material inputs, heat recovery, and substitution potential. However, the PDH result is preliminary because functional equivalence was not experimentally verified.

Keywords

spent catalyst

RDS

PDH

resource circulation

environmental impact assessment

본 연구는 폐RDS 및 폐PDH 촉매의 자원순환 전략을 공통 전과정평가 틀에서 검토하였다. RDS 촉매는 엑서지·핀치 분석에 기반한 열교환망 개선공정과 기존 재생공정을 비교하고, PDH 촉매는 회수 알루미나와 신재 알루미나를 질량 기준으로 비교하였다. EF 3.1과 cradle-to-gate 경계를 적용한 결과, RDS 개선공정의 기후변화 영향은 19.83에서 18.39 kg CO₂ eq./kg으로 7.26% 감소하였다. 반면 PDH 회수 알루미나는 14.45 kg CO₂ eq./kg으로 신재 알루미나 1.54 kg CO₂ eq./kg보다 높았으며, 비교 가능한 14개 영향범주에서도 더 크게 나타났다. 이는 자원순환의 효과가 에너지·보조물질 투입, 열회수 및 신재 대체 가능성에 좌우됨을 보여준다. 다만, PDH 결과는 기능동등성을 실험적으로 검증하지 않은 선별평가로서 결과 해석에 한계가 있다.

키워드

사용 후 촉매

RDS

PDH

자원순환

환경영향평가

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Information

Publisher :The Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers
Publisher(Ko) :한국자원공학회
Journal Title :Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers
Journal Title(Ko) :한국자원공학회지
Volume : 63
No :4
Pages :406-416
Received Date : 2026-07-03
Revised Date : 2026-07-31
Accepted Date : 2026-08-03
DOI :https://doi.org/10.32390/ksmer.2026.63.4.406

Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

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