Precious Metal Refining & Recovery, Episode 10: Platinum From the Road

Cody'sLab0 HN recommenders · 2018–2024
5.2M views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2016-05-29

Cody's Lab collects a sample of dust from the side of a highway and refines it to recover platinum-group metals deposited by catalytic converters. The video walks through the chemistry of separating and assaying the precious metals.

HN commenters cite it as a vivid demonstration that roadside and tire/pavement dust contains recoverable platinum.

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7 comments from Hacker News

@stephengillie2018 · in “The case for hydrogen-powered cars”

We can literally sweep platinum off our highways, as Cody'sLab demonstrates[0]. Platinum is a catalyst in auto mufflers to change NOx molecules back to N2 and CO2. And a tiny amount flakes off as a gas-car drives. Sweeping a 10-foot section of heavily-used freeway shoulder netted them $0.55 of platinum. At this rate, there should be $1000 of platinum per mile of freeway shoulder. [0] [VIDEO]

@cwkoss2019 · in “Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters”

Cody's Lab did an episode where he collected and refined freeway dust: it's actually decent grade platinum 'ore' from catalytic converter deposition [VIDEO]

@ehnto2020 · in “Pollution from tire wear is worse than exhaust emissions?”

Roads are filthy. Cody's Lab once did a video where he collected road dust from the side of a highway, and refined out all the precious metals from it. That's from one small section of highway, just imagine the scale of the pollution across the whole of the states. Concrete dust, rubber, metals, fuel, oil. Cars and car infrastructure is dirty business. [VIDEO]

@ehnto2020 · in “Study suggests that fresh asphalt is a significant source of air pollution”

Which reminds me of a video of Cody's Lab, where he refines precious metals out of roadside dust: [VIDEO]

@ddtaylor2021 · in “Why thieves love to steal catalytic converters”

You may also like this video on attempting to extract those precious metals from the pavement itself: [VIDEO]

@jaggederest2024 · in “How do jewellers capture every last particle of gold dust? (2017)”

There's a Cody's Lab video where they refine highway dust for platinum group metals leaking from catalytic converters: [VIDEO]

@thenickdude2024 · in “How do jewellers capture every last particle of gold dust? (2017)”

Reminds me of Cody's Lab refining platinum from roadside dust from the highway: (due to catalytic converters) [VIDEO]