How much is your catalyst?

Every day we have to answer the same question:
"How much does this catalyst cost?"

A number of factors affect the cost of a catalyst:

1. The price of the catalyst depends on which sales market a particular car was originally assembled for. Higher quality catalysts are supplied to European markets than to third world countries. In fact, the deception starts right at the car factory. For markets with tough environmental standards, top quality catalysts are produced, and for third countries only so called "dummies".

2. The higher the class of the car, the better the catalyst. This is due to the observance of environmental standards.

3. The longer the service life of the car, the less precious metals remain in the catalyst. If you remove 2-3 mm of asphalt pavement from the Autobahn, the precious metal content will be about 30% of the average catalyst content.

4. Sporty driving helps to "drain" the catalyst more quickly. If you remove the catalyst, the car will be about 10% more powerful, but you won't pass the MOT.

5. Fuel. Certain fuel additives leach metals from the catalyst.

6. There are catalysts with different compositions of precious metals:

• Pt, Pd + Rh - "classic" and the oldest type of catalysts. Average content per one ton of ceramics (ppm): Pt - 1470, Pd - 900, Rh - 270. Today, it is already an “endangered” species.
  Average price for this category: 60-80 euro/kg.
• Pt + Rh - usually catalysts from diesel or premium cars.
  There is no palladium in such catalysts, but platinum is in the order of 2500-5500 ppm. The cost of this category of catalysts is 80-160 euro/kg.
• Pd + Rh - No platinum, but palladium of the order of 3000-5500 ppm. Even 10 years ago, such catalysts make up about 40% of the total amount of modern catalysts, but with a sharp increase in palladium, manufacturers are increasingly producing catalysts with platinum.
  Average price: 80-260 euro/kg.

From the above, we can conclude – it is impossible to determine the cost of a catalyst without analysis!
Buying and selling catalysts by eye or from catalogs is a risk for both the buyer and the seller.

Companies that buy catalysts "by eye", having no opportunity to buy equipment for analysis, try to buy catalysts at the lowest price in their category.