Pre-recovery-system and recovery-system losses of platinum group metals contained in automotive catalytic converters

Abstract Due to U.S. dependence upon potentially unreliable overseas sources of primary platinum group metals (PGM), and due to the importance of these metals to our way of life and to our national security, much interest centers upon domestic recoveries of PGM from scrap materials. Most large-quantity applications of PGM are conducive to high secondary recovery rates but, in contrast, the recovery of theoretically available PGM from automotive catalytic converters, the largest U.S. application, is currently running at a level estimated to be only about 45%. Ways to induce conservation of PGM both before and after converter retirement are considered after discussion of converter retirement modes, converter/catalyst recovery channels, recovery channel stations, materials upgrading, PGM loss modes, and the influence of the profit motive upon converter/catalyst/PGM recovery.