Abstract: A method for eliminating silicon or silicon compounds in alumina based materials without destroying such alumina based materials enabling reutilization particularly in catalysts for hydrotreating processes, comprising: a) mixing alumina based solid material which contains silicon with an alcohol extraction agent at a temperature between 10 and 300° C., for 10 minutes to 96 hours to form a mixture; b) separating solids from the mixture by centrifugation, decantation or filtration to obtain separated solids; c) washing the separated solids with at least one of water, alcohol or an ammonium hydroxide solution to form washed solids; and d) drying the washed solids to obtain regenerated alumina based solid material.

Abstract: The present invention refers to a method for eliminating silicon or silicon compounds that are contained in alumina based materials without destroying such alumina based materials allowing for their reutilization, its main application is being the regeneration of alumina based catalyst contaminated with silicon, which are used in hydro-treating processes in the oil industry for sulfur elimination and silicon removal from process streams. It is important to note that the procedures and/or conventional methods known so far for the elimination and removal of silicon contained in alumina based materials, use inorganic acids or their mixture in a digestion process which modifies the properties of alumina and of any other element contained in the material, thus destroying the alumina and disabling their reutilization.