Application Tag:
12 June 2012
Emissions control using platinum group metals (pgm) plays a vital part in controlling releases of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and oxides of nitrogen from diesel vehicle exhausts. The combination of modern diesel engines, pgm-based and other exhaust aftertreatment and ultra-low sulphur fuel results in the cleanest-ever diesel engine-out emissions.
3 August 2011
In terms of the relative abundance of chemical elements in the Earth's crust, platinum and palladium are found in abundances of approximately 1 part per billion and 0.6 parts per billion respectively, making them the 75th and 76th most abundant elements in the earth's crust, in other words very rare (Emsley, 2001).
28 April 2011
The UK government has introduced The Red Tape Challenge, an initiative to reduce some of the 21,000 active statutory rules and regulations that place the largest burden on society; thereby damaging new business and the economy. One area of focus, and therefore in danger of repeal, is the hallmarking of precious metal jewellery and silverware.
7 December 2010
Two physically-backed platinum and palladium exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, were launched in the first half of 2007 in Europe. Exchange-traded funds exist in a wide variety of commodities, including gold and silver, and are constructed to allow investment into specific commodities without the investor having to take physical delivery or enter the futures markets.
11 August 2009
Recent comments in the press have mentioned the possibility of the use of gold in diesel autocatalysts. In December 2007, Nanostellar announced the development of a diesel exhaust catalyst which "uses gold alongside traditional platinum and palladium metals".
13 January 2009
The announcement by Nissan (in July 2007) of its plans to introduce new, lower pgm, autocatalyst technology on its gasoline vehicles in late 2008 or early 2009 gathered considerable attention from market commentators and from the media. In October 2007, Mazda also announced new technology which it also believes will allow it to cut its autocatalyst metal loadings.
29 April 2008
Mitsui Mining of Japan announced on 23rd April 2008 that it has developed silver-based technology which could be used as a replacement for platinum in a diesel particulate filter (DPF). Mitsui claims that as the market price of silver is much lower than that of platinum, this technology could reduce the pgm cost by more than 90%.
18 February 2008
At the end of January, the South African mining industry (including platinum, gold and coal) briefly shut down almost all of its operations due to unpredictable power availability. Although South Africa has 40,000MW of installed generating capacity, roughly a quarter of this was out of action at the time due to faults, planned maintenance and a shortage of the coal.
22 January 2008
CO2 emissions are currently hot on the political agenda in Europe and in North America. In December 2007, the European Commission proposed legislation to reduce the average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of new passenger cars to 120 grams per kilometre (g/km) by 2012, an improvement in fuel economy of about 25 per cent from current levels1.
14 September 2007
Daihatsu, the Japanese minicar manufacturer recently (September 2007) announced some results on its research into alkaline fuel cells.
Alkaline fuel cells themselves are not a particularly new technology, having been used in a number of space programmes since the 1950s.