Addressing the critical issue of catalytic converter thefts and unrecycled precious metals

The alarming rise of catalytic converter theft has been making headlines as of late and for good reason. According to the Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, catalytic converter theft has increased by 60% over the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., catalytic converter theft has taken a shape of its own with the formation (and thankfully, the recent collapse after a year-long search) of a multi-million dollar catalytic converter theft ring that stole and then sold roughly 27,300 converters for approximately US$300 per unit over the course of a three-year period.

Why should you care?

There are a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, catalytic converters are used to filter out and burn harmful emissions from the exhaust gases in automobiles, trucks, and commercial vehicles while improving the vehicle’s efficiency. Without them attached to our vehicles where they belong, those harmful emissions are now contributing to existing environmental pollutants.

This need creates a high demand for catalytic converters. In fact, the catalytic converter market continues to grow and is forecasted to reach a whopping US$73.1 billion by 2025. You may wonder where this growth is coming from, given electric vehicles are also growing in demand. While that is certainly true, electric vehicles will not replace non-road heavy equipment and yellow iron equipment, which also use catalytic converters.

But the main reason has to do with the precious metals that are found in those catalytic converters. Each year, an alarming US$21.2 billion worth of precious metals from diesel catalytic converters are left unrecycled in landfills, compounded by the fact that these resources are already scarce as it is.

There is, perhaps, an even bigger issue at large: smelting is the dominant commercial method to recovering precious metals today, namely palladium (Pd) and palladium (Pt), from used catalytic converters – but a significant contributor to harmful environmental pollutants, including greenhouse gases (GHGs) and toxic byproducts that contaminate the air and water, not to mention human health.

These are the issues Regenx Tech is working to solve, the first-to-market, non-smelter company that is revolutionizing the precious metal recovery industry. The company’s mission is to reshape the future of clean technology by tackling these pressing challenges at their core through the introduction of a new environmentally friendly and commercially viable method for recovering platinum group metals from diesel catalytic converters.

As the first and only method to recover platinum group metals in an environmentally friendly and commercially viable manner, Regenx’s clean tech solution has marked a significant milestone in the niche but vital mining and precious metal recovery industry for the following reasons:

1 The ability to extract precious metals more by doing less

Currently, 27 million auto catalytic converters become available for scrap each year, yet only 30% of the palladium is recovered. In this new process, Regenx recovers 90% of precious metals in an environmentally safe sustainable manner.

2 Precious metal recovery in a sustainable manner

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all is the method’s positive impact on climate change. As mentioned earlier, smelting has dominated the precious metal recovery industry and at the time, for good reason: it was the only commercially viable method until now. However, the excess release of carbon dioxide and byproduct toxins involved in the heating and melting processes of smelting creates serious environmental implications that are damaging to the health of the population and the planet at large. The rate at which smelting occurs makes this process all the more terrifying.

In addition, US$21.2 billion per year worth of precious metals from diesel catalytic converters is being wasted and left in landfills and scrap yards because many smelter companies are no longer accepting diesel catalytic converters. One reason for this is that catalytic converters create processing issues and operational inefficiencies. In addition, most smelter companies have capped their carbon emissions footprint, and current industrial smelters are operating at close to 100% capacity. Because of this, no new smelters are being built, leaving no alternative solution to recovering the precious metals so urgently needed by a growing market.

Meanwhile, sustainability is the primary focus of the new process. The new clean technology emits far less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and is less energy-intensive compared to traditional mining and recycling by smelters. Additionally, it recovers and recycles over 90% of the precious metals found in diesel catalytic converters.

Mining, as we know, produces a finite resource, and continual replacement of the resource is not sustainable. That is why our process is designed so that just one plant with four modules will recover 170,000 oz. of platinum and palladium annually.

This marks a major breakthrough in clean technology and the precious metal recovery industry.

3 Breaking ground in an untapped market

Recycling precious metals from diesel catalytic converters is a largely untapped market. In fact, 85% of the world’s annual supply of the precious metal palladium is used in catalytic converters, and in North America alone, a whopping 2,110,000 oz. of palladium was used in the production of catalytic converters just in the year 2021. Yet, as a reminder, there is US$21.2 billion per year worth of precious metals in retired catalytic converters that go to waste with no solution to be found until now.

On the other end, world platinum production is decreasing. In 2017, 8 million oz. of platinum were produced, and in 2019, it was 6 million oz. This is because traditional mining for palladium and platinum is not only difficult but expensive, not to mention further compromised due to geopolitical matters. For example, two-thirds of the global platinum production is in South Africa, and Russia falls right behind.

However, while the initial and primary focus will be on diesel catalytic converters, there is currently a wide cross-section of markets using platinum and palladium in everyday products, including hydrogen fuel cells, medical devices, electronic glass, hard disc drives (cloud data storage), fertilizers, physical investment (coins), safety products, jewelry, dental devices, pharmaceutical equipment, transportation, and much more.

This makes the new solution all the more commercially viable compounded by a surging diesel catalytic converter market, which is expected to grow from US$24.7 billion in 2017 to US$39.3 billion in 2025. In other words, each four-module plant has the ability to produce US$100 million in revenue alone when it is scaled to full capacity.

In addition, because the clean tech system reduces our carbon footprint and does not require as much energy as traditional mining and recycling methods, it creates the ability to accrue carbon credits as a secondary revenue source, offering an even greater opportunity to scale.

How the clean tech works

Figuring out how to recover 90% of precious metals from catalytic converters in an environmentally safe and sustainable manner has not been easy, but it has certainly been worth it.

The plant is constructed in modular stages with each module having a capacity of 2.5 tonnes. The first module will begin extracting precious metals in August, and then increase its extraction amount up to its capacity of 2.5 tonnes each day within an approximate 30-day period. The plant will then fabricate and assemble the second, third, and fourth modules in the process, allowing for the extraction of up to 10 tonnes of precious metals each day and 3,120 tonnes annually.

A real solution to safeguard our environmental and economic future

Overall, the critical issue of catalytic converter thefts and unrecycled precious metals demands innovative solutions. The new process will not only address the urgent need for a new method, but also offers a cleaner, more sustainable outlook to protect the environment, conserve valuable resources, and build a brighter future for generations to come. The crucial need to support and adopt transformative clean tech mining solutions that are both efficient and sustainable is important now more than ever. 

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Greg Pendura has been the CEO of Regenx since 2009. He has an impressive background of over 35 years in founding, financing, and advising emerging private and public companies.

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