The platinum group metals (PGMs) that make catalytic converters work are valuable enough that a booming industry in catalytic converter recycling has emerged over the years. Catalytic converter recyclers usually buy them for the precious metals inside. Getting those metals is a rather technical process the average scrapyard or repair shop is not going to be able to handle. The full recovery process requires specialized equipment and expertise. That reality presents an opportunity for recycling catalytic converters in bulk. The mix of PGMs (palladium, platinum, and rhodium) they recover in small amounts can add up to some serious money. Demand for these recovered metals is likely to remain strong as well.
Why Recycling Catalytic Converters is Big Business
In short, catalytic converters contain valuable metals. The longer answer involves a combination of environmental concerns, demand, and rarity. The palladium, platinum, and rhodium that converters use are worth anywhere from a little over $1,000/ounce (for palladium), $2000 (platinum), and $15,000 (rhodium). These metals are rare, so it takes a huge amount of mining to extract each pound of pure metal. Mining produces lots of waste while also consuming a huge amount of water and energy. Recycling those metals is better for the environment too.
Every gasoline-burning car and light truck sold in North America since the mid-1970s has featured a catalytic converter to clean the exhaust gases and meet emission control standards. Those converters, or the cars they were on, inevitably become scrap at some point. Lots of them have since become available to catalytic converter recyclers. Platinum, palladium, and rhodium have plenty of uses in other industries, so the demand for PGMs is high.
Exhaust removal
The first part of the recycling process is to remove the converter and exhaust pipe from under the car. Next, the recycler will cut the converter away from the exhaust pipe. The owner will also want to identify the model of the converter. This is what determines the part’s value to a recycler as the amount of PGMs varies widely from one model to another. Because the values of palladium, platinum, and rhodium change so much the scrap value of converters varies quite a bit.
Getting the best price can take some work, especially for a company that might have dozens of old catalytic converters to recycle. You can speed up the process by using an app, like Belanger’s Group Catalyst to quickly get a price and keep your price quotes organized.
Honeycomb Removal
To get maximum value from a part, the catalytic converter recycler needs to take a couple of precautions to make sure they don’t damage the honeycomb filter material inside. Once the converter has been priced, the honeycomb material, also called the biscuit, that does the exhaust cleanup work, has to be removed and processed. Decanning, to name the process, needs to be done with care and in a controlled environment. Damaged components are less valuable to smelters. The dust kicked up in disassembling the converter might be quite unhealthy over time. You probably don’t want to do this yourself even if you can, because potential buyers won’t know how much PGM content they can recover. This is only knowable after you melt and extract the precious metals. Or, you could check the model number to get a current price. Companies offer online calculators and mobile apps for this.
Recovering the Metals
The biscuit goes through several processing steps to get the PGMs inside. The process might vary a bit, depending on the smelter. Generally, it begins by melting the biscuit, extracting metals from the molten material, and using chemicals to extract the palladium, platinum, or rhodium.
The recoverable amount of metals will also vary based on the age of the converter and the size. Older converters tended to have more PGM material. Smaller catalytic converters, for smaller cars, have less of the precious metals. Newer cats can be more efficient, so they use less palladium, platinum, and rhodium. The mix of palladium, platinum, and rhodium will vary too.
The recovery process involves several steps including grinding up the converter core, melting the powdered material, and then chemically extracting the different PGMs. As you can probably guess, this extraction process is specialized and not entirely safe if you are a novice. Once the smelter has the metals, the final step is to weigh the individual metals and sell them. Specialty firms that handle PGMs would have easy access to buyers in the automotive industry, and others.
Used Catalytic Converters Mean Money
Worldwide demand for PGMs has driven high demand from catalytic converter recyclers. Numerous scrapyards, recyclers, and smelting operations serve the need for those expensive and useful metals. If you are recycling catalytic converters singly or in large numbers, try out the Group Catalyst app for Android and iOS devices. You can learn more about the app on our site and from the respective app stores.
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