Objective
The project aims to demonstrate, at semi-industrial scale, the technical and economical feasability of the process consisting in the following steps : collection, treatment and recycling of spent converters (those out of order as well as those coming from end-of-life vehicles):
a) the collection of the spent converters is uneasy and costly, as they are extremely disseminated
b) after separation the metallic can, the treatment itself enables the recovery of the separarion of the precious metals and the converter, (representing approximately 0.2 weight% of the converter) but also of the metallic can and of the ceramic support under the form of an aluminium salt in solution ; this solution can generally be used as coagulant in waste water support treatment plants. The innovative process elaborated by RHONE POULENC shows a favourable cost/performance ratio. The technique applied should encourage the treatment and the recycling of automotive converters in the European Community, joining the efforts to improve the handling of end of life vehicles.
The catalytic converters, now incorporated in all new cars (gasoline engines and soon diesel engines), contain a catalyst (mainly composed of Precious Metals, known as "PGMs" : Platinum Group Metals), deposited on a ceramic support (SiO2 - Al2O3 - MgO). Spent converters are wastes which, in the absence of a profitable recycling process, will end in landfills, unseparated from the other shredders residues remaining from the treatment of end-of-life vehicles.
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
15270 LANOBRE
France