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Demand for platinum to reduce pollution from automobile exhausts.

Kusler DJ

Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, IC 8565, 1973 Jan; :1-32

10009435

The Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended, requires that automobiles produced in 1975 and thereafter be provided with antipollutive measures to control automotive exhaust emissions. The study considers the need for automobile pollution control, the methodology for such control, the annual primary (new) platinum demand for automobiles produced from 1975 to 1990, primary platinum availability, and supply-demand forecasts and outlook. Methodology for the study included a forecast of new automobile production from 1975 to 1990, development of automobile survival and retirement data, estimates of new platinum demand under various conditions of salvage, and data on recycling the precious metal from the catalytic converters of scrapped vehicles and existing vehicles when their spent converters are exchanged for replacement units. The new platinum demand for automobile exhaust converters, based on a converter service life of 50,000 miles, is estimated to be 1.41 million troy ounces initially in 1975, rising to 1.68 million in 1980, and declining curvilinearly to 0.94 million in 1990. The petroleum industry's demand for new platinum for the production of lead-free gasoline could total as high as 1 million troy ounces between 1972 and 1981, just for expansion of isomerization and reforming capacity, and is in addition to normal operating demand for this metal.

Metals; Platinum-compounds; Pollution; Exhaust-systems; Environmental-pollution; Environmental-protection

19730101

IH; Information Circular

1973

PB-214753

A04

IC-8565

EFOC

Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, IC 8565

PA