Waste to Energy Firm Gets into PGM Recycling from Auto Catalysts

Houston, Texas based waste to energy technology developer, Global Clean Energy, (otc pink: GCEI) is to acquire a U.S. based nonferrous scrap metal and catalytic recycling company. The company explained that it is in the final stages of its due diligence subsequent to an executed agreement to acquire a majority stake in the unnamed firm. GCEI added that the company being acquired will focus on becoming a major aggregator of spent catalytic converters from end of life vehicles, which are rich in Platinum Group Precious Metals (PGMs) platinum, palladium and rhodium. According to the company, PGMs from used auto catalysts can be highly and efficiently recovered through a state of the art smelting process. Concurrent with the acquisition, GCEI said that it will be purchasing smelting technology to operate the recovery process. Auto catalysts, which reduce toxic emissions in automobiles, use substantial amounts of platinum and palladium and are said to be the largest source of demand for PGM followed by the jewelry industry and industrial applications. The "We're not alone in this industry and for good reason," commented Brian Levine GCE's COO. "PGM are essential industrial precious metals with world demand growing to the point that you'll need a telescope to see how high the price of platinum will go, according to industry experts," he added. According to Levine demand from Asia is expected to drive prices to all-time highs, further accelerating demand for PGM recovery processes which GCE will build, own and operate. “Platinum will gain 13% to average $1635 an ounce by the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the mean of eight estimates by the most-accurate analysts tracked by Bloomberg in the past two years,” he said. “Palladium will gain 10% during the same time period to average $823 an ounce, the most for a quarter since 2001,” Levine concluded. Through its acquisition, GCEI said that it will operate a vertically integrated PGM recycling facility and be able to compete favourably in the market. Read More Plasma Arc Recycling of Precious Metals With one in four of all products manufactured requiring platinum group metals in some regard, it's unsurprising that demand for these costly yet highly useful metals has surged. Primary sources have struggled to keep pace and recycling is on the rise. WMW investigates how plasma arc technology is helping recyclers to bridge the gap between supply and demand. By Ben Messenger 5.2 MW Farm & Food Waste to Biogas Facility Secures Air Permit in Charlotte, NC Waste to energy project developer, Bluesphere has secured an air emissions permit for its planned 5.2 MW anaerobic digestion facility in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. MSU Scientists Researching Hungry Microbes that Eat Nuclear Waste & Produce Biofuels A new fuel-cell concept that uses waste eating microbes could put an end to the production of hazardous glycerol wastes at biodiesel plants while removing their dependence on fossil fuel for the production process.