Recycling Platinum Group Metals
Recycling platinum group metals (PGMs) is very important because it provides a supplementary source to the mining of these rare precious metals, which help to protect the environment by drastically reducing harmful emissions from automobiles. Catalytic converters reduce the toxicity of emissions from internal combustion engines by providing an environment for a chemical reaction wherein nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are converted to less toxic gases.
There are numerous types of PGM-bearing materials that can be recycled economically. These materials include automobile catalytic converters, petroleum catalysts, VAM catalysts, alumina catalysts, wash-coat residue, electronic scrap, industrial products, machine slimes, raw materials, jewelry cutting tools and numerous others. The quantity and availability of these recyclable materials varies significantly.
The largest source of PGM recycling material comes from spent automobile catalytic converters. The core of a catalytic converter is usually a ceramic honeycomb covered with a wash-coat containing PGMs, and this core is encased in stainless steel. Bead and metallic are the other two types of PGM-rich core materials in auto catalysts but are not as prevalent as the ceramic honeycomb. These spent and scrapped catalytic converters are gathered by collectors in the business, and they are broken or chopped to separate the steel casing away from the core
material that will be processed.
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