'Smop' up precious metals from catalyst processes

Johnson Matthey has introduced Smopex, a scavenging system that recovers low levels of precious metals from catalyst liquors quickly and efficiently, the company claims. Recovering metal from catalyst processes not only reduces metal losses to a minimum, ensuring economic use of the catalyst, but also gives a clean final product and increased yield.

The design of Smopex incorporates metal binding properties into thin polyolefin fibres with highly accessible active functional groups, allowing for more effective metal uptake. The fibres are easily handled and filtered, offer greater mechanical and chemical stability than current scavengers and can be used in both aqueous and organic media.