Leesmithyt33
New member
Hey everyone in relatively new here I've been having a snoop for a few weeks but this is my first post.
I have managed to get my hands on about 35 catalytic converters brand new and about 20 years old(been in storage along time), unfortunately I'm not 100% sure what jeep/truck they've come off as they have no metal case over the cat (i do know for a fact they're not car cats) .
So my thoughts.. They're basically useless to me as they are (I can't sell them to any scrap yard without serial numbers) so I've decided to recover the metals myself, this is my first time recovering pgm metals.
I am well aware of the dangers involved in this and rest assured I am taking every precaution possible to ensure mine and everyone else safety.
I have already started the process and I would like to log my progress of what I get back and how it goes on here, and maybe someone else here has some tips for me?
So I broke up 11 cats into a bucket (some fine bits but mostly the size of computer mouse) added 5L HCL and 5L of water I then added sodium hypochlorite and sodium chlorate every other day ( mixing regularly) for about a month.
This project took the back burner for 3 months or so then so the cats were sat In the aqua regia all that time, I have now processed all the red solution and precipitated the black particulates out with zinc, i was surprised how much zinic I actually used during this process.
The black pgm particulates I have fell out of solution fast and settled quick, I am now at the stage where I have started to clean the black powder with HCL and warm water so I can get a weight measurement when it is dry.
I have no doubt I have lost some pgm metals over the the course of extracting it so far so any tips would be much appreciated thanks for reading!
(picture attached is the black powder and HCL wash I'm assuming the green layer is zinc in solution)
I have managed to get my hands on about 35 catalytic converters brand new and about 20 years old(been in storage along time), unfortunately I'm not 100% sure what jeep/truck they've come off as they have no metal case over the cat (i do know for a fact they're not car cats) .
So my thoughts.. They're basically useless to me as they are (I can't sell them to any scrap yard without serial numbers) so I've decided to recover the metals myself, this is my first time recovering pgm metals.
I am well aware of the dangers involved in this and rest assured I am taking every precaution possible to ensure mine and everyone else safety.
I have already started the process and I would like to log my progress of what I get back and how it goes on here, and maybe someone else here has some tips for me?
So I broke up 11 cats into a bucket (some fine bits but mostly the size of computer mouse) added 5L HCL and 5L of water I then added sodium hypochlorite and sodium chlorate every other day ( mixing regularly) for about a month.
This project took the back burner for 3 months or so then so the cats were sat In the aqua regia all that time, I have now processed all the red solution and precipitated the black particulates out with zinc, i was surprised how much zinic I actually used during this process.
The black pgm particulates I have fell out of solution fast and settled quick, I am now at the stage where I have started to clean the black powder with HCL and warm water so I can get a weight measurement when it is dry.
I have no doubt I have lost some pgm metals over the the course of extracting it so far so any tips would be much appreciated thanks for reading!
(picture attached is the black powder and HCL wash I'm assuming the green layer is zinc in solution)