Sabin refines precious metals from the products and byproducts of the pharmaceutical, petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, electronics, fuel cell and numerous other industries. With our proven techniques and highly experienced people, we recover platinum group metals, gold and silver, and offer the only full pyro-metallurgical recovery of rhenium. After refining, we reprocess furnace slags to capture the last parts per million—leaving no precious metal behind.
Other precious metal refining companies use hydro-metallurgy to dissolve precious metal alumina catalysts in acids or strong caustics. Which means they are only able to recover the soluble metal. At Sabin, we melt them. Using pyro-metallurgical processes, we isolate and purify the total precious metal content, and recover every last ounce.
Our proprietary Pyro-Re® precious metals refinery process offers the only pyro-metallurgical recovery of rhenium in the industry. With it, we recover total rhenium content from spent semi-regenerative and cyclic fixed-bed hydrocarbon processing catalysts—and get you a full return.
Most refiners rely on hydro-metallurgical methods that dissolve catalyst material in acids or caustic solutions. The problem: rhenium oxidizes to perrhenate under those conditions and is easily lost in the liquor, especially when alumina-based catalyst matrices create complex, competing dissolution chemistry. What dissolves isn't always what gets recovered.
Pyro-Re® bypasses that loss pathway entirely. We process spent Pt-Re/Al₂O₃ catalysts through a high-temperature pyro-metallurgical furnace sequence that volatilizes rhenium as rhenium heptoxide (Re₂O₇)—its stable gaseous oxide form above 300°C. That volatilized Re₂O₇ is then captured downstream through our proprietary condensation and scrubbing system, converting it to ammonium perrhenate (APR) or reduced to metal, depending on your downstream requirements.
The result: total rhenium accountability across the entire catalyst charge—not just the fraction that dissolves. Because we treat the full melt, including refractory inclusions and occluded metal phases that acid leach simply can't reach, we account for rhenium that other refiners leave behind. Furnace slags are subsequently reprocessed to recover residual platinum group metals, ensuring nothing escapes the circuit.
Whether you're returning spent catalyst from naphtha reforming or cyclic platforming units, Pyro-Re® is engineered to close your rhenium loop completely.
Learn more about precious metal refining and how to get the highest possible return.
Our experts will identify ways to maximize precious metal recovery in your operations.
