Cat Converter Honeycomb - Page 2

XRF guns are not very accurate to the degree to pay the OP his value of converters in their original shells. A gun can help you determine a pile of aftermarket catalyst material vs. a pile of OE material.

European countries vs. USA PGM loadings are different.

Originally Posted by Catalysts

Hi,

You need to find a buyer with an XRF gun basically. They'll be able to scan your material and get a PPM readout. It's not as accurate as a milled batch assay but it will let them know what you have is genuine and give them a rough PPM reading.

When you ring around the so called "refiners" just ask "Do you have an XRF gun" If they say yes then that's the people you want to be dealing with.

Edit: VW Group cats will do about £70 / KG, VW DPF's will do about £35 / KG.

Hope this helps

Cheers

ScrapCatalysts.co.uk

I never never said to take a reading threw the shell.

European countries PGM loadings are different than loadings in the US cars.

Yes I can guess guess what is catalyst is worth as well. I have mixed catalyst averages too. My point is I am trying to answer the OP’s question of what he can do to get paid for his material.

Originally Posted by Snowman18

APA you have to remove the comb, grind into power then make a compressed pellet to get an accurate XRF reading, no way to can get a reading of the comb through the shell.

The information Catalysts posted above is good advice at least the buyer is able to determine the value plus or minus a few PPM of the combs value which is much better than receiving $4.00 a pound.

If you google scrap catalysts you will find who I work for. Basically all I know is that in the UK it's very rare people remap the catalytic converters, but the diesel particulate filter remaps are quite common. I said about an XRF gun because Citroen / Peugeot DPF are completely worthless, BMW DPF material can be ok, but the other german stuff like Mercedes, VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat etc can be really good. We use the gun to determine what is good DPF and what is junk tungsten carbide catalyst. We are currently having our database updated but if it helps you guys out any I can give you free access once it's complete... We have over 5,000 unique part numbers with accurate prices based on the current precious metal market. I'm not too sure how it works for the American market but in Europe we buy by each part number. I've made a paid for advertisement but 2 days later it's not appeared... Will be advertising for ceramic material very shortly so would be interested in anyone who produces bulk (500kg +) amounts of ceramic. Hope this helps / looking forward to dealing with you guys in the future!

Originally Posted by Catalysts

Hi,

You need to find a buyer with an XRF gun basically. They'll be able to scan your material and get a PPM readout. It's not as accurate as a milled batch assay but it will let them know what you have is genuine and give them a rough PPM reading.

When you ring around the so called "refiners" just ask "Do you have an XRF gun" If they say yes then that's the people you want to be dealing with.

Edit: VW Group cats will do about £70 / KG, VW DPF's will do about £35 / KG.

Hope this helps

Cheers

ScrapCatalysts.co.uk

Works out to approximately $44.24 USD per pound for the VW cats, my assay for mixed comb was $35.00 a pound.

Thanks for posting this information.

Before doing your XRF assay are you pelletizing your material.

Catalysts you may find those destined for export have the washcoat over loaded, they do this to assure the catalytic converter will at least reach maturity on warranty on foreign soil.

Originally Posted by Snowman18

Catalysts you may find those destined for export have the washcoat over loaded, they do this to assure the catalytic converter will at least reach maturity on warranty on foreign soil.

There are many funky tricks that catalyst manufacturers like to pull. The worst in the UK is all the aftermarket manufacturers... They basically sell junk that passes one MOT (vehicle fitness) check and then fails a year later.. They have changed the rules in the U.K now as well so if a remap is visible or any tampering with the catalyst is visible it's an instant MOT fail. They are becoming very strict on emissions and I suspect they will be clamping down in the US on this very shortly.

Originally Posted by Catalysts

There are many funky tricks that catalyst manufacturers like to pull. The worst in the UK is all the aftermarket manufacturers... They basically sell junk that passes one MOT (vehicle fitness) check and then fails a year later.. They have changed the rules in the U.K now as well so if a remap is visible or any tampering with the catalyst is visible it's an instant MOT fail. They are becoming very strict on emissions and I suspect they will be clamping down in the US on this very shortly.

I had suggested to a fellow to have an assay done from any given cat pulled from the pile, he sent the material to American Analytical Labs for the assay.

What puzzled me is that the assay came back showing a presence of gold, so naturally I thought the sample had been contaminated and told him so.

He explained to me how the sample was taken which satisfied me that the sample was not contaminated on his end, he contacted the lab and they did a re-run on the assay from the archived sample. Same results the gold was confirmed.

After giving this some thought I got to thinking that the manufacturer of aftermarket cats are using pregnant liquors from refining e-waste.

Have you ever encountered similar results where gold was present in a cat assay.

Originally Posted by nutpie

Asking the experts.....

So.. I pick up scrap from this German guy, heavy accent, who works on German cars out of his home garage; BMW and Mercedes to be exact. On my last pickup from him, about 3 weeks ago, there were several exhaust systems, including the cats. 4 cats and one precat all together. So naturally I am excited. I cut the cats off the exhaust to find all but one are empty and figured he had taken the honeycomb out. Oh well. The cat that was full I set aside. One of the empty Mercedes cat I also set aside thinking maybe I am not seeing something and was planning on taking to my buddy who is a mechanic and asking questions. (You know, wishful thinking). I scrapped the rest of the exhausts and empty cats.

I went this morning to pick up more scrap from this guy. He had called me yesterday for a pick up but I was working out of town and could not be there until the morning. He said he had aluminum wheels among other things. Sometime after he called me and before I picked up the scrap someone else had taken the wheels.

When I showed up this morning the guy said he felt bad because someone showed up and took the wheels after he called me. So he decided to give me the honeycomb he had taken out of the cats.

The weight of the honeycomb is about 10 lbs. I figure that is probably 3 or 4 cats worth of honeycomb. But I am asking folks here on SMF who have more expertise about items of this nature.

How can I prove the honeycomb is out of Mercedes and BMW other than having one of the empty Mercedes cats? Because obviously some cats are worth more than others.

Our newest member from the UK is employed at a precious metals refinery, I've used the currency converter to convert Euro to US dollar, catalyst from Volkswagen group average in value at $44.24 dollars a pound. He also mentioned that Mercedes and BMW are of much better quality and that you should find a buyer who have an XRF gun.

I totally agree with our new member.

Originally Posted by Catalysts

Hi,

You need to find a buyer with an XRF gun basically. They'll be able to scan your material and get a PPM readout. It's not as accurate as a milled batch assay but it will let them know what you have is genuine and give them a rough PPM reading.

When you ring around the so called "refiners" just ask "Do you have an XRF gun" If they say yes then that's the people you want to be dealing with.

Edit: VW Group cats will do about £70 / KG, VW DPF's will do about £35 / KG.

Hope this helps

Cheers

ScrapCatalysts.co.uk

Platinum crystals from catalytic converter experiment.

Hard work pays off, float.

Maximize your cat profits, easier than you think.

On average 3 grams of platinum group metals inside each cat.