fp1erle0n1
Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2012
- Messages
- 20
Hi all,
I am an eginner that works for a fuel cell company.
A fuel cell stack is a device composed by multiple cells.
Each cell has a Membrane Electrode Assembly (also known as MEA) that contains platinum as major catalyst.
At the end of the life of a stack the MEAs are taken apart and I would like to scrap them.
What will be left will be a sort of plastic membrane with the catalyst that is carbon based.
The platinum is in the form of incredibly small particles of the dimension o nanometers. They are dispersed into the carbon structure.
I know the platinum loading and the active area of the membrane so I can estimate the ammount of platinum per membrane quite easily.
Right now the fuel cell company I work for is not refining them. From what I understood they just put them to the garbage more or less or they give it to some scrap-yard that probably doesn't know the value of it.
So then I decided to take 4 samples of it and I sent it to a refinery I have been working with since a long time.
They confirmed the ammount of platinum I was expecting (around 0.2grams/membrane) and they told me that for future orders the chemical process would cost a fee of 150$ and a yield of 86% of spot price. I was not that happy about those possible returns. I was considering orders of around 50-100membranes that would equate to 10-20grams of pure platinum. I was essentially thinking to work as a middle man for the company buying directly from them the membranes to be refined.
Anybody here could be interested and might have returns that are more competitive than the one I described?
Please let me know.
Filippo
I am an eginner that works for a fuel cell company.
A fuel cell stack is a device composed by multiple cells.
Each cell has a Membrane Electrode Assembly (also known as MEA) that contains platinum as major catalyst.
At the end of the life of a stack the MEAs are taken apart and I would like to scrap them.
What will be left will be a sort of plastic membrane with the catalyst that is carbon based.
The platinum is in the form of incredibly small particles of the dimension o nanometers. They are dispersed into the carbon structure.
I know the platinum loading and the active area of the membrane so I can estimate the ammount of platinum per membrane quite easily.
Right now the fuel cell company I work for is not refining them. From what I understood they just put them to the garbage more or less or they give it to some scrap-yard that probably doesn't know the value of it.
So then I decided to take 4 samples of it and I sent it to a refinery I have been working with since a long time.
They confirmed the ammount of platinum I was expecting (around 0.2grams/membrane) and they told me that for future orders the chemical process would cost a fee of 150$ and a yield of 86% of spot price. I was not that happy about those possible returns. I was considering orders of around 50-100membranes that would equate to 10-20grams of pure platinum. I was essentially thinking to work as a middle man for the company buying directly from them the membranes to be refined.
Anybody here could be interested and might have returns that are more competitive than the one I described?
Please let me know.
Filippo