Iron capture mechanism for harmless recovering platinum group metals from spent automobile catalyst

Automotive catalysts are the largest consumption source of platinum group metals (PGMs). When it exceeds its useful life, spent automotive catalysts (SACs) are the most important secondary PGMs resource and are classified as hazardous solid waste. Recycling SAC is a promising solution to alleviate the shortage of PGMs resources for projects and reduce environmental pollution. The technology for recovering PGMs by iron-melting collection can obtain Fe-PGMs alloy and harmless glass slag. In this paper, the spontaneous aggregation and growth behaviour of Fe and PGMs in slag at melting temperature were studied, and the settling velocity of Fe-PGMs particles in the slag was calculated to be 6.68 × 10−3 m/s. The effects of melting time, melting temperature and Fe dosage on PGMs recovery were determined, and the optimal conditions were 10 wt% Fe, 1500°C and 40 min. The toxicity test verifies that the slag obtained is a clean slag harmless to the environment. This work explains the mechanism of Fe collection of PGMs and provides a pathway for efficient and harmless recovery of PGMs from SAC.