Catalytic Converter Refining with pictures

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Rusty (who is no longer on the forum) used a plastic drum with 1/2 of the top cut out. After the leach is complete, place the leach and material in the drum and then place a terry cloth towel in the open hole where the towel hangs below the drum when its laid on its side. Of course the drum needs to be elevated. Place a catch pan under the towel. The liquid will "wick" out of the solids and drip from the towel. It's slow but it leaves the solids in the drum and the liquid is removed. Wicking is largely overlooked but it is a great way to drain liquids from ultra fine material.
 
GSP has made several posts on using a wick to remove liquid from a solution (I believe it was GSP who introduced the forum to this very useful tool), I use it to help remove liquid from my waste, during the waste treatment process, and am very happy with the results.
 
Ouch. That hurt!!!!! So basically I cannot recover anything or even a little profit from crushed catalytic converter?? How about if I only want to do it on small scale basis?? Like 5 kg per day?? I mean large volume will give me trouble but what if 5 bucket 1 kg each?? I can do it small amount. . I also found that my cc's are not burnt properly. What should be my next step if I only want to do only 1 kg for now??
Thank you
 
Slayer-PGM said:
Ouch. That hurt!!!!! So basically I cannot recover anything or even a little profit from crushed catalytic converter?? How about if I only want to do it on small scale basis?? Like 5 kg per day?? I mean large volume will give me trouble but what if 5 bucket 1 kg each?? I can do it small amount. . I also found that my cc's are not burnt properly. What should be my next step if I only want to do only 1 kg for now??
Thank you
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Its not that you can't leach some of the PGMs out of the crushed CAT material - its a question of can you leach & recover enough to make a profit :?: :?: :?:

That in part depends on the deal you are making with the guy that owns the material

The other part depends on how good of a system you have set up to do the job

After spending something like 9 months focused on trying this on a large scale all I can say is good luck

you would be much better off smelting this material then trying to leach it - there is a very good reason why the big boys don't leach CATs - if it worked - that's how they would do it

I just don't want to see you get in over your head on a deal with material that belongs to someone else &/or material you have to buy as you could end up owing the guy &/or losing money in the end

Kurt
 
kurtak said:
you would be much better off smelting this material then trying to leach it - there is a very good reason why the big boys don't leach CATs - if it worked - that's how they would do it


Kurt
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So you are suggesting me to directly smelt in furnace and then do a lead fire assay ? can you please give some details.

thanks
 
I say leach these, you can recover some (or most of) the values from the material (if they have the values involved), if you have to ask how to smelt them and are not set up to do it, leaching is the way to go on a small scale.
 
butcher said:
I say leach these, you can recover some (or most of) the values from the material (if they have the values involved), if you have to ask how to smelt them and are not set up to do it, leaching is the way to go on a small scale.
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So I should start with hot AR?? Or does this material need more burning to remove the carbon which would reduce the actual yield?

How would you or anyone suggest to do it??
 
Slayer-PGM,
I should try to clear up a misunderstanding I had, I did not realize you were planning on recovery of precious metals from catalytic material on a larger scale, Kurt has given excellent advice, from his experience in this area.

I was saying for a small scale leaching will work, but if you are doing more than a couple of catalytic converters you should pay close attention to kurtak's advice.
 
butcher said:
Slayer-PGM,
I should try to clear up a misunderstanding I had, I did not realize you were planning on recovery of precious metals from catalytic material on a larger scale, Kurt has given excellent advice, from his experience in this area.

I was saying for a small scale leaching will work, but if you are doing more than a couple of catalytic converters you should pay close attention to kurtak's advice.
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Actually I am looking to process 3 kg max on a daily basis. Can't I even do a 3 kg per day??
I am not at all going for a large scale operation.
 
If you start a 6 pound a day refining effort and your not set up for it, you will soon be swamped with containers and could possibly loose track of what you have done to what. In other words, I dont think you can start and finish 3Kg's in a day. I would say do 3Kg's and see how long it will actually take start to finish.
 
Geo said:
If you start a 6 pound a day refining effort and your not set up for it, you will soon be swamped with containers and could possibly loose track of what you have done to what. In other words, I dont think you can start and finish 3Kg's in a day. I would say do 3Kg's and see how long it will actually take start to finish.
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Geo - you are absolutely correct here

There is no way to do even a small batch in one day --- more like 4 or 5 days (& that's if you are set up right to do it in the first place & know what you are doing)

So yes - try to do 200 kg in many small batch's - you will "soon" find your self over whelmed not knowing what's, what & what to do next

Kurt
 
Slayer-PGM

You say you have been given a 1 kg sample with another 200 kg available if you can figure out how to process it

What kind of a deal are you talking about working out with the guy that owns the material ???

I spent (last year) about 9 month focused on nothing but trying to process CATs for the PGMs & put in something like 1500 hours of R&D

The reason I ask is if this is material that the guy is going to give you for free it might well be worth going after & I can tell you what you need to do

on the other hand if it is material you ether need to buy based on the market value of the CATs that went into it (& I would estimate that value at around $20,000) &/or if you are going to do it on a percentage of the "profits" (another words he takes the $20,000 off the top & anything over that you split) then it is going to cost you more just to set up to do it then you will get out of it

Kurt
 
kurtak said:
Slayer-PGM

You say you have been given a 1 kg sample with another 200 kg available if you can figure out how to process it

What kind of a deal are you talking about working out with the guy that owns the material ???

I spent (last year) about 9 month focused on nothing but trying to process CATs for the PGMs & put in something like 1500 hours of R&D

The reason I ask is if this is material that the guy is going to give you for free it might well be worth going after & I can tell you what you need to do

on the other hand if it is material you ether need to buy based on the market value of the CATs that went into it (& I would estimate that value at around $20,000) &/or if you are going to do it on a percentage of the "profits" (another words he takes the $20,000 off the top & anything over that you split) then it is going to cost you more just to set up to do it then you will get out of it

Kurt
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I am getting per kg of crushed honeycomb at $20 per kg. So I guess it's around $4000 for 200 kg. Its kind of cheap here. Hope this help. Thank you very much.
 
Platdigger said:
Unless the material is from mostly aftermarkets or is not virgin material, then that would be a very good price.
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Actually those rates are for fresh cat converters. The price is almost the same in India too. I am too getting fresh cats at same price. The prices here is $15 for Diesel type cat converter and $27 for petrol type cat converter per kg.
 
Platdigger said:
Yes, I have heard the cats on cars in Asia are not as rich in pms.
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Yes - where the CATs are coming from will make a difference - Also - even here in the U.S. CAT buyers pay "a lot" less for crushed CAT material simply because they have no idea what went into it

My estimated value was based on Cats from the U.S. & an average comb per CAT of 1 kg (some more some less) with an average price per CAT of $100 (some more some less) & that the owner tracked the value of the CATs he put into it & that he would want that value back either in out right selling or off the top of a profit sharing venture

Regardless of the situation I will try to make time to explain about processing CATs on a larger then HOBBY leaching 5 gal buckets of whole CAT combs

If I can find the time to do this I will do so in "full" detail & do it as a new thread in the PGM section of the forum

Today I need to filter/wash 10 lbs silver cement, pour anode bars & set up the silver cell - (there's PGMs in this silver cement) :mrgreen:

Kurt
 
kurtak said:
Platdigger said:
Yes, I have heard the cats on cars in Asia are not as rich in pms.
Click to expand...

Regardless of the situation I will try to make time to explain about processing CATs on a larger then HOBBY leaching 5 gal buckets of whole CAT combs

If I can find the time to do this I will do so in "full" detail & do it as a new thread in the PGM section of the forum

Kurt
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only whole CAT comb? What about the crushed combs? Will they work the same way? Thanks for the input tough. Really appreciate it and newbies will get lot of help and not to mention blessings... :) :p
 
Let me re-phrase --- I will explain the difference between small hobby processing of CATs & large volume processing of CATs & why what works on the small level does not work the large level

Kurt
 
kurtak said:
Let me re-phrase --- I will explain the difference between small hobby processing of CATs & large volume processing of CATs & why what works on the small level does not work the large level

Kurt
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Oops !!! so its basically "why to to" rather than "how to do"... :p
 

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