Noble metal catchment

Business Opportunity

Inven2 offers a technology that enables efficient capture and recovery of noble metals, such as platinum, rhodium, and palladium, that are currently lost during catalytic processes in fertilizer production using the Haber-Bosch method. These metals are essential for maintaining catalytic efficiency but are prone to gradual loss due to wear and environmental factors during operation. The metals are expensive and their recovery helps address a significant unmet need for cost savings and sustainability in industrial operations. The technology promises several advantages over existing practices, including improved resource efficiency, reduced operational losses, and alignment with sustainability goals. The recovery of noble metals presents a significant economic opportunity due to their high cost, driven by widespread industrial use, resource scarcity, and regulatory shifts toward sustainable practices and circular economies, which this technology strongly supports. The solution will fit within current industrial workflows by acting as a complementary process to existing operations, facilitating seamless adoption. 
We seek partners for co-development and/or licensing of the technology and are interested to validate the technology together with user partners.

Technology Description

Leading inorganic materials scientists at the University of Oslo have collaborated with industry for more than a decade to improve both the catalytic- and catchment gauzes used in process plants, and know the industrial pain and bottle necks very well. They have identified various oxides that are particularly efficient for Pt, Rh, and Pd catchment. The main advantages with the present innovation are: 

• It abates the emitted laughing gas N₂O at general operating conditions (50% when using LaNiO₃ at 4 bars and 850^oC)

• The pressure drop through the net package is minor

• Low cost of materials and processing to manufacture screens, the deposition of oxides is a straightforward technique 

• Has no decomposition effect on the yield of NO from the first stage of the Ostwald process

Our oxide-based catchment materials are cheaper and offer simpler production and recycling chemistry. They will prevent noble metal loss in Ostwald-process efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and need for fresh-material extraction of scarcity metals. For Pd today, there are no alternatives to replacing the lost Pd by purchasing newly mined material. Likewise, today there exist no technology for Rh catchment. The present innovation represents a breakthrough technology.

Intellectual Property