Public Funding for Phosphonics Limited

Platinum group metals (PGMs) are widely used as catalysts in the production of chemicals that enhance quality of life: pharmaceutical & cosmetic products, coatings, energy-efficient lubricants, adhesives, food cling wraps and phthalate-free plasticisers, to name just a few examples. However, the UK has no viable reserves of PGMS, so it is critical that we recover the metals both for their value (for example, rhodium, Rh, to be recovered in this project, sells for >$1100 per troy ounce!) and to ensure materials security. Total Recovery of All Platinum group metals (TRAP) is a project focussed on developing a technology package integrating both new materials and low-energy engineering processes using membranes to capture Rh from waste streams in production of large volume chemicals. To achieve this, a UK SME with expertise in metals capture, Phosphonics, will work with academic partners at the University of Bath and a large waste management company, Veolia. Recovery of metals like Rh will recover value from waste, enhance the UK's movement towards the circular economy and ensure that we can continue to manufacture the products that we need, while reducing global C-footprint.

Chemical processes catalysed with Palladium (Pd) compounds, and based on Nobel-prize winning methods, have become essential for the production of life-enhancing pharmaceuticals & chemicals. These processes underpin global manufacturing worth more than £10billion each year for pharmaceuticals alone. However, the components of the Pd-catalyst must be recovered from the reaction products through further expensive and energy-intensive processing. This project will develop a new 'Catch & Release' technology which can catch the catalyst whilst reaction products are removed, and then release it in a fully-functional active form to catalyse the next reaction. New reaction components are introduced allowing another production cycle to begin. This novel semi-continuous process will be applied initially in the pharmaceutical & agrochemical industries and then developed for other process industries, such as the emerging plastic electronics sector.