Project duration: 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2022

Objective

PHEIDIAS will upscale an innovative hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) from Spent Vehicle Catalytic Converters, focusing on the RIS markets of Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Cyprus, and Serbia. The technology will be commercialized, yielding profits through: a) selling of PGMs recovered through a highly efficient process, and b) licensing rights to recycling facilities.

The solution (technology)

PHEIDIAS aims to bring into the market an innovative hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) from Spent Vehicle Catalytic Converters (SVCCs). The competitive advantage of this technology is the increased material recovery rate, as well as significantly lower operational costs. The rates of Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium recovery with this technology have already reached ~98%, ~98%, and ~60%, respectively, with highly increased operating flexibility and cost efficiency. Every time a batch of SVCCs becomes available, initiating the process requires much less energy than the pyro-metallurgical processes mostly employed in the RIS region (test units operate at 70°C than ~1200°C of competitive solutions). Further to this, the technology uses solvents in low concentrations, which improves waste management performance.

The project will focus on the markets of Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Cyprus, and Serbia, where project partners have already developed a network of SVCCs suppliers through their previous collaboration in the INNOCAT and INNOCAT-up projects. To that end, partners will upscale and pilot-test the proposed technology at large-scale operation conditions, bringing it from TR5 to TRL8 during the project, and commercialise it within one year after project completion (TRL9).

PHEIDIAS foresees revenues from both selling the PGMs recovered, for which demand is both at an all-time high in 2020 and still increasing, as well as from selling access to the technology and know-how through licensing. To that end, the partnership will also develop a Go-To-Market strategy and establish commercial networks and collaborations in the aforementioned markets, primarily with the car maintenance and recycling industry, and further explore possibilities for EU-wide expansion (a Spanish partner has been included in the consortium for this reason).

Partnership

  • Enalos Research and Development, Greece
  • Hellenic Society for the Promotion of Research and Development Methodologies (PROMEA), Greece
  • International Center for Advanced Materials and Raw Materials of Castilla y León – ICAMCyL, Spain
  • Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (MEERI), Poland
  • Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
  • University of Miskolc, Hungary
  • RIS TASK PARTNER 2 – ROMANIA, Romania
  • RIS TASK PARTNER 1 – SLOVENIA, Slovenia
  • Monolithos Ltd (Lead Partner), Greece