The Catalyst Review October 2024 - 10

SPECIAL FEATURE
alongside primary mined metals. Around
a third of annual Pd and Rh demand and
1/5th of Pt is met from metal returned
from the scrap recycling circuit.
Meanwhile chemical catalysts make use
of all eight precious metals and are made
up of thousands of different materials
with varying precious metals content. The
chemical, electrical, electronics, glass,
dental, petroleum refining and biomedical
industries rely on precious metals in
forms such as wires, tubes, gauzes,
shaped ceramics, plated surfaces and
coatings and liquid solutions.
Investors meanwhile can also buy
physical precious metals in the form
of coins and bars. Unsurprisingly, the
collection and refining of precious metals
is highly complex given the vast number
of different materials, their precious metal
contents and different forms. Successful
scrap collectors and recyclers have built
up incredible know-how and catalogues
for assessing scrap values by sight and
manual inspection as well as quantitative
assaying employed in the recycling
process.
Precious metals are also traded on
stock exchanges without physical metal
movement which adds a further layer
of complexity to their pricing and can
exacerbate volatility in time of tight
liquidity. Larger (Tier 1) manufacturers
of precious metals and items that
incorporate them, often have their own
trading departments and these interface
with their internal operations, and external
partners including miners, recyclers,
independent traders, and metal analysts,
information flowing back and forth
between the different parties with a view
to smooth supply chain management of
these complex assets. Many of the largest
refiners are also catalyst manufacturers and
Table 1 indicates their current locations and expansion strategies. There are also many smaller
companies with specific equipment and expertise for refining specific types of precious metals
scrap such as autocatalysts, electronic scrap, homogeneous catalysts, nitric acid gauzes and
catalyst coated membranes.
The advent of hydrogen as an energy vector meanwhile is seeing strong capacity builds for
water electrolysis. Metal requirements vary depending on the electrolyser type, with polymer
electrolyte membrane electrolysers (PEMEL) requiring large amount of platinum and iridium,
while the analogous fuel cells (PEMFC) also require large amounts of platinum and cobalt. The
additional consideration when refining PEM systems is the membrane upon which the PGM is
10
The Catalyst Review
October 2024
Table 1 Key Catalyst Manufacturers with PGM Refining Operations
Source: Author

The Catalyst Review October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review October 2024