QUEBEC –NovX21 Inc. has signed an agreement with Thetford Mines to build the province's first precious metals recycling plant in that city. The facility will be set up in an existing building in the industrial park, eventually to become a commercial scale installation of NovX21's patented technology for the recovery of platinum group metals from end-of-life vehicles.
Montreal-based NovX21 has developed, patented and implemented a sustainable green technology for the recycling of catalytic converters, a key component of vehicle pollution control systems. The company says its process is quick, clean, affordable, and energy. Both the ceramic substrate in the converters along with platinum, palladium and rhodium will be recovered.
The NovX21 process relies on what the company calls "dry chloruation" to convert metals into salts. The sales are then dissolved at room temperature and filtered to separate a recoverable ceramic paste and a PGM-rich solution. The pregnant solution passes through an ion exchange tower, and a concentrate is produced in a combustion furnace at relatively low temperatures. Controlled calcination of the resin produces gaseous emissions that are scrubbed before release. The final emission consists of only air, water and carbon dioxide. The chorine gas used in the dry chloruator is captured in a wet scrubber to produce industrial grade bleach.
The entire process recovers at least 97% of the PGMs as well as the ceramic components of the converters.
NovX21 says the technology it developed also opens the door to R&D activities aimed at adapting its facilities to recover other metals for use in a range of industries that generate large quantities of reusable components, such as electronics.
To learn more, visit NovX21.com.
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