Current Status of Recycling of Rhenium and Process Technologies

Abstract

Rhenium (Re) is used as an additive in several alloys, such as nickel-based superalloys for jet engine turbine blades, platinum catalysts for oil refining, and thermocouples used at ultra-high temperature, in order to improve strength and stability at high temperature. Due to the rare and unevenly distributed nature of Re, there is risk of supply disruption owing to supply shortage and the rapid increase in Re price. To minimize the risk of a supply disruption, processes for recycling Re from Re-containing alloys and catalysts have been developed. In this article, we review characteristics of Re-containing materials and the current status of Re recycling; we also introduce some recent recycling technologies for recovering Re from various scraps.

Keywords

• rhenium
• rhenium alloy
• recycling technologies
• less-common metal
• superalloy
• catalyst