CEBRA

PGM are classified as Critical Raw Materials (“CRM”) and are naturally found in economic quantities only within very particular geological environments (as opposed to other metals such as copper, zinc or gold for example).

Le projet CEBRA

Impliquant un consortium de cinq pays européens, le projet vise au développement d'une activité d'économie circulaire intégrée dans le domaine des Métaux du Groupe du Platine

The particular link of PGM with very specific ultramafic/mafic complexes is responsible for their scarcity and hence their value. Such favorable rock types primarily occur in South Africa and Russia, the main producing countries which are responsible for 75 to 80% of the PGM world mine primary supply. Optimizing recovery from PGM secondary streams is a key CEBRA objective to reduce EU’s dependence on external supply chains for such CRM.

On the demand side the main current applications are Automotive Catalytic Converters (“ACC”) which represent by far the largest consumer with a 52.5% market share in Europe. Future mobility technologies, such as hybrid or fuel cell powered vehicles, will increasingly rely on the use of PGM.

The CEBRA project focuses on the dual objective to manufacture ACC integrating 100% recycled PGM, while simultaneously decreasing the PGM quantity via partial substitution by a low-cost and politically less sensitive transition metal such as copper. CEBRA project activities will be carried out over 3-year time frame and existing technologies currently at TRL 5 will be brought to TRL7 and validated at system prototype demonstration level in operational environment level by experienced industrial partners.