No, the plan is not to make any hole in the asphalt. The cycle of extraction, processing, and recovery of metals represents a multibillion-dollar global business, assuming those metals can be obtained in sufficiently high quantities. Just as gold can be recovered from computer componentsjust as gold is recovered from computer components, there is also the possibility of obtaining platinum deposited in the dust that accumulates on the side of the road. The question that brings us here today is: How much platinum is trapped in that dust?
To reduce harmful gas emissions, vehicles use a catalytic converter, or simply a catalyst, installed in the exhaust. Among its main components is platinum, one of the most useful and expensive metals known. The idea of recovering platinum is interesting not only because of its current price, but also because production levels remain below 200 tons per year. In fact, several analysts predict a platinum shortage, but that's not what brings us here.
Recovering Platinum from Road Dust
The YouTube channel Cody'sLab, where you can find chemistry videos that are relatively 'impractical' but extraordinary in process and dedication, decided to embark on another crazy adventure to recover platinum from the dust that accumulates on the road. In the past we've seen his gold, silver, and lead extractions, but platinum is shaping up to be a much tougher challenge...
Thousands of vehicles passing daily on the ramp connecting Interstate 15 and Interstate 80, decades of catalyst use, and two individuals armed with brooms at three in the morning serve as an 'introduction' to this video on unconventional platinum mining. After separating the larger elements (stones, rubber pieces, cigarette filters, etc.) and further sieving the remaining dust, he decided to process a 150-gram sample of 'road dust'.
The theory is striking because new catalytic converters contain more platinum (between two and three grams) than older ones, and it's estimated that they lose half of the metal every 160,000 kilometers driven. Add up all the vehicles that pass through the I-15 and I-80 interchange daily, and the idea of finding platinum doesn't seem so far-fetched...
...and it wasn't, except for one detail: the sample he obtained is so small that his scale couldn't even register it. Separation, oxidation, and an impressive amount of heat were needed to create a tiny pellet measuring 0.33 millimeters. Once the chemistry was done, the video moves on to the math, and assuming it's pure platinum (Cody believes its real purity was around 50 percent), the calculation indicates about 6.7 grams per ton of dust. In other words, you'd need to process a ton of material to obtain (in theory) about $200 worth of platinum. It's crazy to try to recover it, but very interesting to know it's there...
Source:Cody'sLab YouTube channel
https://old.neoteo.com/extraccion-de-oro-de-placas-base/
