Autocatalyst recycling starts in Pinghu
BASF HERAEUS Metal Resource has opened a platinum-group metals recycling facility in Pinghu, China. The operation brings together BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions and Heraeus Precious Metals. The 32,000-square-metre site was built in 16 months and has capacity to recycle approximately 10,000 tonnes of automotive catalysts annually.
The partners announced the start of operations on 17 January 2024. Each owns 50% of the joint venture, which has more than 100 employees. They described its investment as a mid-double-digit million-euro amount, without publishing an exact total.
Technology and company expectations
The facility will use ECMS pyrometallurgy recycling technology to recover precious metals. Tim Ingle, then ECMS senior vice president for Precious Metal Services and Recycling, said the operation would help customers reuse metals locally and reduce their carbon footprints.
The companies cited an estimated 18% annual growth rate for the Chinese autocatalyst recycling market, without naming the market researcher. They also claimed potential carbon-emissions savings of up to 98% for recycled precious metals compared with mining. These are a market forecast and a potential emissions comparison, rather than reported annual results from the Pinghu plant.
Earlier plans for the venture
BASF and Heraeus announced their agreement on 11 February 2022. At that stage, they targeted establishment of the legal entity in the first quarter of 2022 after regulatory approval. Construction was planned to begin during 2022, with operations originally scheduled for 2023.
The partners connected the project with limited Chinese domestic resources of platinum-group metals and reliance on imports. Platinum, palladium and rhodium were among the metals highlighted. Recovered metals were intended for new products in:
- Automotive manufacturing.
- Chemical and electronics industries.
- Green-hydrogen applications.
In 2022, Ingle said the partnership would combine the partners’ recycling expertise and pyrometallurgy technology. Marius Vigener, then Heraeus Precious Metals vice president for Business Line Chemicals, linked the venture to Heraeus’s existing wet-chemical recycling presence in China and the stability of local metal supplies.
Expansion across several recycling locations
Heraeus had opened a platinum-group metals plant in Nanjing in 2018. Its wider recycling expansion also covered Hanau in Germany, together with Wartburg, Tennessee, and Santa Fe Springs, California, in the United States.
Vigener placed the Pinghu investment within Heraeus Precious Metals’ €300 million global recycling expansion programme covering China, the United States and Germany. The amount refers to that international programme, rather than the cost of the Pinghu facility alone.
Additional Hanau production lines were expected to substantially increase recycling capacity by 2026. Their planned electrolytic processes were intended to reduce chemical use and improve process efficiency.
Leave a comment