Catalytic Converters – A History

The year 1972 was a watershed in the life of mankind in this world. All the countries woke up to the horrifying fact to the degradation of environment due to the activities of human. We, in the pursuit of development, cared little for this planet Earth and thus went on with over-exploiting its resources in a very sadistic manner. The meeting of Heads of State in Stockholm forged a new avenue for the world to ponder. Motor vehicle industry which was on the spurt during that time was primarily based on petrol, a natural resource. This led to carbon emission making the air we breathe to resemble poison. Thus, Catalytic converter was invented by Eugene Houdry, a French mechanical engineer.

General Motors first implemented the catalytic converter, which was earlier used in oil refining industry, in automobiles. It would convert the toxic by product of combustion to less toxic ones by a catalysed reaction. In the twenty first century, all automobiles are mandated to have them in their vehicle. These are not only cars, but also trucks, busses, generators and even motor-cycles. The converters use two-way and three-way methods to convert; though, now the tree-way method has been made compulsory. The converter has decreased the emission level to more than 80%.

Another glaring problem in today’s world is recycling of the dump created. Re-cycling also needs to take care of minimum degradation to environment in the process. As catalytic converters use precious metals, therefore it is necessary to extract the remainder amounts back in the process of recycling. The fore-most question that might come to your mind in relation to the above is – where to sell catalytic converters. Precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium are used as catalyst agents in the device. They are also known as PGM(Platinum Group Metals).

Catalytic converter decanning is done for ceramic varieties to separate the honeycomb from the metal housing. A lot of catalytic converter scrap is wasted on the floor when these are shredded. A good amount is lost in the air also. Hydraulic shears are used for the process. The idea is to get back the maximum value for these products as they are not only precious but very costly materials. A systematic system is now in place to sell scrap and further selling of particular articles and the precious metal obtained is valued and the price is returned to the seller. The buyers of such extracts from catalytic converters sell them to mining companies that deal in such metals. Still water mining company of Montana, USA is a leading name in that business. Much research and development has been done to extract the precious metals with speed, efficiency and least amount of wastage.

Global refining group is proud to be the one to have implemented this system of 100% extraction. They also partner with still water mining company to directly sell the extracted material. The scrap is collected by a network of such collectors. They also provide pick-up facility across the USA. The seller can be a wholesaler or car owner. The price of extracted material is same irrespective of the quantity the seller comes with. Truly a great step in environment protection.

For information on scrap catalytic converter prices, one can visit Globalrefininggroup.com

About The Author

Tom Blake is an expert in recycling catalytic converters who also likes to write many interesting articles and blogs, helping people in understanding the process and the many advantages that stem from it. In the US, he recommends Globalrefininggroup.com as the most trusted specialist for this job.

Benjamin Harvey is a mechanical engineer specializing in automobiles, and is closely associated with working and researching on catalytic converters.