The Place of Precious Metals in Catalytic Converters

In recent years, automotive catalysts that reduce environmental pollution have been used in automobiles as catalytic converters. These converters use Precious Metals Group (PGM), which is capable of converting chemically active elements, especially harmful substances. From platinum group metals (PGMs), palladium, platinum and rhodium represent key materials for automotive exhaust gas treatment. The importance of these metals for the automotive industry is gradually increasing, as there are currently not enough alternatives.

As can be seen in the figure, statistical data show that approximately 55% of palladium and platinum are used in automotive catalysts (40% of Pt and 67% of Pd). It is seen that more than 50% of rhodium is used in automotive catalysts.

While the average PGM content of automotive catalysts is 5-7 g per kg, in industry like oil refineries, materials with an average content of over 10 g per kilogram of material are used. In addition, used catalytic converters with an average of about 5 g of PGM represent a high grade raw material compared to primary sources. Another key motivation for PGM recycling is limited raw material availability. Primary sources are geographically limited and are often removed from mainstream consumers. Recycling of automotive catalysts is inevitable to meet the increasing demand and prevent negative environmental impacts.

The table shows the gram price of precious metals in catalytic converters. Recovery of PGM metals from used auto catalytic converters has also become very important economically, and catalytic converters have become a valuable resource of these metals. High purity of recovered metals allows for later reuse and does not cause financial problems.

Proses Makina Company has all the information, physical and chemical equipment that can help you set up a company to collect and recycle catalytic converters.