Desco Recycles Catalytic Converters
Every car with a petrol or diesel engine also has an exhaust system that includes something called a catalytic converter. This is the piece of the system that removes pollutants from the exhaust fumes of the engine before they leave the system.
The catalytic converter contains small quantities of rare metals, typically rhodium, platinum or palladium. And while these metals are only present in tiny amounts, they are still worth recovering due to the high cost of extracting them from the earth, not to mention the environmental damage that mining operations can do.
Some people bring us the entire exhaust system, others cut out the catalytic converter while still others bring it to us already crushed into a powdered form and ready for analysis.
When dealing with an exhaust system, our first step is to offer a price based on the serial number of the converter. But some clients opt for the shred process as it is more accurate. Then we remove the catalytic converter, cut it open to remove what we call the Catalyses. This is the metal or ceramic honeycomb structure that contains the rare metals that we’re looking to recycle.
Catalytic converters are all different and contain varying amounts of these rare metals. We have to crush them into a powder form, and then analyse that powder to determine which metal and how much of it is present.
We then pay the customer out for the value of the metals recovered, which is based on the prevailing price of that particular metal on the London Metal Exchange, less a percentage to cover handling and processing.
It’s that simple. Have you got an old catalytic converter lying around? If so, bring it to us. You may be surprised how much you can get for it.