Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) exhibit numerous desired properties such as corrosion resistance, high melting points, temperature stability, catalytic properties etc., making them highly valuable to the chemical and advanced materials industries. They are the most essential elements for the manufacturing of Automotive Catalytic Converters (ACCs) with more than 40% of the total EU PGMs demand consumed for ACCs production, corresponding to ca. 20% of the global demand. Europe is the highest consumer of platinum (Pt), and important consumer of palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) for ACCs, which contain PGMs at ca 600 times greater amount than PGM ores. Higher PGM amounts are needed in ACCs of hybrid cars because of their emissions classification and the frequent starts their engines need to make. Given that PGMs production from mining is virtually non-existent in the EU and the dependence on their imports mostly from politically sensitive regions (South Africa, Russia, Canada), their efficient and cost-effective recycling and reuse in different applications such as catalysis, jewelry, medicine, electronics, etc., is of big financial, environmental, societal and political importance. Hence, PGMs are constantly in the EU’ s critical raw materials list. EXTREME establishes the collaboration of Y.S. Cypriot Catalysts Ltd (SME) with Stylianos Spathariotis (Experienced Researcher) to develop a breakthrough ACCs valorisation process to produce high purity PGMs streams for end-use applications and ease the EU PGMs dependence. Therefore, the research objectives of the project are:
ROI. To determine the optimum leaching system for high leaching efficiency of PGMs from spent autocatalysts, and research the chemical reactions and mechanisms during the process.
RO2. To research the interactions of the PGMs with other compounds in the DESs and the corresponding reactivities of the species formed, as well as the chemical reactions and mechanisms during electrowinning and cementation to achieve the selective recovery of PGMs streams at high purity.
RO3. To develop a TRL4 single pot process for the simultaneous leaching and recovery of PGMs from spent autocatalysts, achieving maximum space-time-yield and metal selectivity, while evaluate the overall sustainability of the process.
EXTREME will create significant scientific, economic and societal impacts to the EU ecosystems as below:
Scientific: The designing of new DESs and provision of significant insight into the chemistry and mechanism of PGMs leaching and recovery using these solvents. Furthermore, sophisticated techniques will be introduced in the project and be used to generate important scientific knowledge on the topic.
Economic: Cost-efficient and eco-conscious process for the extraction of expensive materials from end-of-life products. The process is expected to achieve high processing efficiency and reduced costs compared to SoA, arising from the one-pot processing, low-cost DES, and novel processing techniques.
Societal: Reduction of urban waste (ca 6 mio cars and their ACCs are scrapped in Europe per year), and elimination of harmful reagents, with significant environmental benefits for humans and fauna/flora that face risks due to improper disposal of heavy reagents. The project will trigger the securement of EU PGMs supply chain, contributing in independence from third country imports and reinforce environmental sustainability.
