Cardiff University: recycling road dust for precious metals
I don't know nearly enough about the mining of precious metals such as platinum to estimate how much it costs to get a reasonable amount from the earth. But, I do know that the metal is expensive to buy, so it must at least be reasonably difficult, right? So, perhaps we should be looking at recovering the precious metals, again like platinum, that we have already unearthed. That is what researchers from Cardiff University are suggesting.
One potential source for the recovery of platinum is from our own roadways. The team from Cardiff is trying to figure out the best place to find the platinum which is slowly emitted from our own tailpipes from our catalytic converters. One possible source: road cleaners. Sounds a little far-fetched, I know... but it's worth a shot. Like I said, if a reasonable amount can be recovered and recycled, that much less needs to be found in veins in the earth. Now, the researchers say they are hoping to reduce the cost of fuel cells, but more immediate uses would obviously be in more catalytic converters and other exhaust treatment systems which require the metal.
[Source: Cardiff University]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marc 6:24PM (7/09/2007)
The companies that supply precious metals for catalytic converters have very active recycling and recovery programs. It must be easier to extract the platinum from a junked catalytic converter than from freshly mined ore.
A few years ago I ran across a scientific paper about levels of catalytic converter precious metals (platinum, palladium, and rhodium) in road dust. The authors found that the levels were almost high enough to be economical to recover. Since then, the price of platinum has doubled. The full paper is not available for free, but you can read the abstract here: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2001/35/i19/abs/es001989s.html
It might make sense for streetsweepers to regularly send samples of the collected dust for precious metal measurement.
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Joseph 12:35PM (7/10/2007)
Our catalytic converters spit out platinium? Maybe the particulate filters on diesels just collect platinium! And maybe Mercedes diesels don't really need to have their urea refilled at the dealership! Maybe Merceds is just stealing (recycling)platinium by "particulate filters!!!!
lol, I'm just kidding. Merceds diesels use particulate filters, right?
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Chris M 11:20PM (7/10/2007)
Hmm, air filters would collect some of this exhaust dust, so maybe your old air filters might be worth something? If we start hearing about "air filter recycling programs", we'll know what's up.
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joe johnson 2:45PM (11/04/2007)
i like the air filter idea, how about the legalities of using a wet vac to suck on the exaust pipes of parked cars??? would one need permission from the owner? perhaps a release form is in order.
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