Pheidias Project

PHEIDIAS aims to bring into the market an innovative hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) from Spent Vehicle Catalytic Converters (SVCCs). This technology offers an increased material recovery rate and significantly lower operational costs, as the recovery rates of PGMs from SVCCs, namely Platinum (Pt), Palladium (Pd), and Rhodium (Rd), have already reached ~98%, ~98% and ~60% respectively. This novel process requires significantly less energy loads than the pyro-metallurgical processes mostly employed in the ESEE region. Furthermore, waste management performance is improved, as this innovatory technology uses solvents in lower concentrations. The project will focus on the markets of Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Cyprus, and Serbia, where project partners have already developed a network of SVCCs suppliers through their previous collaboration in the INNOCAT and INNOCAT-up projects. To that end, partners will upscale and pilot-test the proposed technology at large-scale operation conditions, bringing it from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 to TRL 8 during the project, commercialising it within one year after project completion (TRL 9), in 2023.