I've been kicking around the idea of buying some catalytic converters off of luxury cars, SUVs, and trucks in order to accumulate some of the platinum metals. Being that they are higher than I'm wanting to currently spend on the other white metals I'm looking for a more cost-effective to diversify. Does anyone on CT have experience with the process? What is the difficulty/Danger lever associated with extracting the precious metals from the cats? Is it worth the trouble? I would be interested in hearing from someone with experience in this area of investing in precious metals.
You will need to find out what permits your state requires you to have to process hazardous materials safely and legally for recycling. That could prove to be cost prohibitive and you probably would not be allowed to do it in your garage.
Good Evening, Mr. Sims: Thank you for your response. I have checked with the Department of Ecology and other local agencies in my State and have confirmed it is legal for me to accumulate, store, and recycle the waste as long as groundwater isn't damaged and as well as other health and safety rules are followed. Since it is viewed as recycling by the State there is (currently) less regulation involved in the process and there would be no transportation breaches as they would be done on-site.
When you read the various chemical techniques to extract to just the 'sludge' level ( such as aqua regia and hydrofluoric acids) and the extreme heat to process makes it into a strictly commercial venture if you consider the dangers. How much would a loss of limbs from chemicals and explosive steps, or home fire that insurance would be limited to replace. it isn't worth it. Scrap the material from within the cat and sell it for lesser amount. The danger is about that of making meth in a closet. I would rather walk a mile with a box of nitroglycerin on my head. People on the internet says they can do it with electrolysis, hydrogen peroxide, etc, but the chemistry says no. Same people who still use cyanide and heated mercury to extract gold.
Cat converters for platinum isn't really worth it if you're talking about doing it yourself and if your only desire is to get the PM's out of it. If however you're also an aspiring chemist and want to do it for the learning, then by all means go ahead, but as was said, read, learn, be careful, it's very dangerous to the amateur. You're much better off doing normal scrapping for it - regular metals, copper, etc. Take the whole cat and sell it to a local scrap yard and then take the cash and buy PM's. Yeah, you'll get less, but you'll also risk less and spend less time. There's a thread if you search for it about "scrapping for silver" where you can see if there's any good info in it, and use that to help yourself out.
Sounds like a pretty eas way to either get permanent lung damage or blow yourself up. Its not like there are little platinum coins inside these things. If you are buying used cats, think of all of the dangerous chemicals that have already been trapped in there. Save your money, work extra hours at your regular job, (or get a second job), and just buy the pm from a dealer. A lot safer all around. Heavy metal chemical separation is not something to do in the back of your garage unless you have a death wish.
If you're going to be breaking the law anyway, while obtaining platinum, I'm sure there are easier ways. I'm also sure that putting the health and safety of your neighbors at risk, has to be considered.
HF penetrates quickly and damages from the inside of the skin. I didn't post photos of the facce/skull for obvious reasons. Bad Stuff!!
So what you're saying is it sounds like a great idea and you wish you thought of it first I hear you all loud and clear. Like I said in the initial post I have just been kicking around the idea. I figured with proper safety precautions in-place and an extremely well ventilated area it may be possible. No amount of profit is worth my health. I will stick to my coin roll hunting for now and turn my profits into other PM. I will check out the recommended thread on sourcing silver also. Desert Gem 0 the Hydrofluoric acid is pretty nasty - I've never seen a photo of the damage before.
If anyone is thinking of refining any sort of PM, here's a good place to start: http://www.goldrefiningforum.com There are some refining experts on there and they share information freely. There are a couple of must read documents they make available that cover the various processes in depth and they emphasize safety above all else. I have seen them shun people who talk about taking shortcuts that could be dangerous. They're good people. I mostly read the silver refining stuff, and there is a lot of that on there. They have some pretty awesome home setups that get really good results. They also have some threads on PGM recovery from catalytic converters, but as others have already mentioned, the chemicals involved are much more dangerous than those used in silver refining. Good luck and be safe.
I would stick to regular bullion. There is plenty around, and a fun thing to do is to keep pre-82 pennies. You will instantly double your money with them.
