Yesterday, MGx broke the story of an enhanced catalytic coating that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half while using half as much platinum, rhodium and palladium. There was another nugget in the story about a ‘solution’ to reclaim precious metals without energy intensive smelting or damage to the catalytic converter substrate.
…developed an environmentally benign ‘solution’ that will reclaim the precious metals from catalytic converter substrates without damage allowing them to be re-coated and reinstalled.
Rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt) and paladium (Pd) are today trading at $2,425, $1,850 and $800 per ounce respectively. According to Platinum Today, 84% of global Rh production, 33% of Pt and 53% of Pd are used in automotive catalytic converters.
The developer controlling that technology believes it will reclaim metals from circuit boards and many other sources and at current gold, silver and platinum prices, could save billions of dollars. Oregon already has the infrastructure in place to apply this technology without a massive capital investment and establish long term jobs.
If the State would take the lead and possibly partner with the developer or an established industry looking to diversify, Oregon, even Coos County could be back to work in a fraction of the time it takes to build a liquified natural gas terminal or a 234 mile pipeline or strip mine producing timber property.
