Recovering platinum from lab equipment with ALS2 technology
Australians generate more than 20 kilograms of electronic waste per person each year, and a small but valuable fraction sits inside chemistry laboratories, hospital pathology units and university research benches. Crucibles, electrodes, thermocouple wires and spent catalysts quietly carry residual platinum that is too valuable to landfill, yet the conventional answer to recovery involves strong acid baths that release toxic fumes.
Across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, laboratory managers now face mounting pressure from state-level e-waste disposal bans and strict WHS controls enforced by Safe Work Australia around aqua regia, hydrochloric acid and chlorine gas. The result is a logistical squeeze: valuable metal sits in storage cupboards because conventional recovery is too dangerous, too slow or too polluting to justify on-site.
That is where the ALS2 process enters the picture. Developed by Ikoi S.p.A. with backing from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research programme, ALS2 is an acidless separation technology that strips precious metals from complex scrap without the corrosive baths that have dominated refining for generations. For Australian laboratories and recyclers, it offers a different pathway to recover high-purity platinum from equipment that would otherwise gather dust.
This article walks through how ALS2 handles platinum specifically, covering feedstock sources, pre-treatment routines, the core separation chemistry and the practical gains in purity, yield and operator safety. It also touches on the Australian market context, where research hospitals, universities and boutique refiners are looking to keep precious metals circulating inside the domestic circular economy.
| Parameter | Conventional acid-based refining | ALS2 acidless separation |
|---|---|---|
| Primary reagents | Aqua regia, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid | Proprietary non-acidic leaching medium |
| Working temperature | 80–110 °C | 45–70 °C |
| Fume and gas emissions | NO₂, Cl₂, acid mists | Negligible acidic off-gas |
| Operator PPE burden | Full chemical suit, scrubber, fume hood | Standard lab PPE and ventilation |
| Selectivity for platinum | Moderate; co-dissolves base metals | High; targets PGMs selectively |
| Recovered platinum purity | 99.5–99.9 % | 99.95 % and above |
Where platinum hides in laboratory equipment
Platinum is prized in laboratories because it resists corrosion, tolerates extreme heat and catalyses a wide range of reactions, which is why it shows up in places most people never see. Used analytical crucibles often hold layers of platinum residue fused into ceramic walls, while dissolution vessels, hydrogenation catalyst sponges and thermocouple wires add to the stockpile. Dental prosthetic offcuts and jewellery scrap bring their own alloys into the mix.
In Australian teaching hospitals and pathology labs, much of this gear reaches end of service quietly. A research project at the University of Melbourne might end with a few kilograms of spent catalyst loaded with platinum, palladium and rhodium, and a materials science lab at the University of Queensland may retire a furnace liner that has absorbed grams of platinum through repeated molten salt experiments. The challenge is concentration: crucible scrap rarely carries more than a few per cent platinum by weight, and the balance is typically alumina, zirconia, silica or fused glass. ALS2 was conceived with exactly this mixed, low-grade feedstock in mind, tolerating impurities and selectively drawing precious metals into a recoverable phase.
Pre-treatment of crucible and bench scrap
Before separation begins, scrap arriving at an ALS2-equipped facility passes through a staged preparation routine. Crucibles are crushed, milled and sieved to expose trapped metal, while wire and mesh are sheared into short lengths that increase surface area. Magnetic separation removes steel casings, and an eddy-current stage lifts out aluminium, copper and brass fractions that would otherwise dilute the precious-metal load.
A calcination step follows for organic-bearing waste such as laboratory filters and absorbent pads that have contacted platinum-bearing solutions. Heating to around 450 °C volatilises organics and leaves a brittle ash that blends readily with milled ceramic, whether the feedstock originated from a hospital autoclave in Westmead or a metallurgy bench at the University of Western Australia. Particle size control matters more than in conventional refining because ALS2 relies on a controlled chemical potential rather than aggressive dissolution, so operators aim for a grind below 100 micrometres and drive off moisture in a low-temperature dryer to protect the reactor.
The chemistry behind acidless separation
The defining feature of ALS2 is the absence of free mineral acids in the working liquor. The process uses a stabilised ionic medium that holds precious metals in solution through a controlled redox potential, leaving base metals largely untouched. Platinum dissolves as a complex ion without releasing chlorine or nitrogen dioxide, the two gases that drive the ventilation costs of a conventional aqua regia refinery.
Selectivity comes from kinetics. The reaction rates for platinum, palladium and rhodium in the ALS2 medium are several orders of magnitude faster than for iron, nickel, copper or chromium, which means precious metals transfer into the working phase while base metals remain in the solid residue. A short contact time extracts the target metals cleanly, a rinse cycle recovers any residual liquor, and the spent medium is regenerated in a closed loop rather than discarded. The result is a chemistry pathway that removes the need for large caustic neutralisation volumes and the corresponding salt-laden wastewater.
Inside an ALS2 compact recovery plant
A typical ALS2 plant for laboratory and crucible scrap fits inside a standard shipping container, making it practical to deploy at distributed sites across regional Australia. Feedstock enters through a sealed hopper, moves through milling and calcination, then into the main contactor where the acidless separation takes place. Instrumentation monitors pH, redox potential, temperature and residence time, with the data logged for traceability.
From the contactor, the loaded liquor flows to electrowinning cells, where platinum deposits onto titanium cathodes over a 6 to 12 hour cycle depending on feed grade. The depleted liquor returns to a regeneration vessel, and the cleaned solid residue discharges into a lined bin. The whole loop is sealed, with off-gases filtered through activated carbon and HEPA stages. Automation is central to the design, with recipes for different scrap types stored as touchscreen profiles that make precious-metal recovery economically viable for small teams in regional centres like Ballarat or Warrnambool.
Purity and yield compared with conventional methods
Refineries running classical aqua regia typically report platinum purities of 99.5 to 99.9 per cent after repeated dissolution, precipitation and re-dissolution cycles. ALS2 skips several of those cycles by virtue of its selectivity, and operators regularly report purities above 99.95 per cent from a single electrowinning stage. For laboratory scrap, where rhodium contamination is a recurring headache, this purity margin materially raises resale value.
Yield is the other side of the comparison. Acid-based refining loses measurable platinum to the washing liquor, scrubber sludge and undissolved ceramic residue. ALS2's closed-loop regeneration captures dissolved metal that would otherwise be discarded, and gentle leaching conditions reduce losses to the solid residue. Across multiple feedstocks, ALS2 users report overall platinum recoveries in the 96 to 98 per cent range, compared with 90 to 93 per cent for traditional refining. A two or three per cent uplift in recovered metal translates directly into improved margins when the price of platinum is quoted in Australian dollars and benchmarked against international spot markets.
Safety and environmental wins for Australian operators
Workplace safety is the single biggest motivator for Australian operators moving away from aqua regia. The WHS Act and state-level regulations enforced by Safe Work NSW, WorkSafe Victoria and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland require detailed risk assessments, atmospheric monitoring and medical surveillance for staff exposed to acid mists and chlorine. ALS2 eliminates those exposure pathways, reducing compliance overhead and the insurance premiums that follow.
Environmental licensing is similarly lighter. State environment protection authorities, including the NSW EPA and Victoria's EPA, set strict discharge limits for acidic wastewater and airborne NO₂. Because ALS2 generates no free acid waste and emits negligible acidic off-gas, the licensing pathway is simpler and the ongoing reporting burden lower, which is particularly welcome for sites near sensitive catchments feeding the Murray-Darling system. Community relations also improve: a quiet, sealed containerised plant handling crucible scrap with minimal noise, smell or visible emissions is far easier to introduce at a community engagement meeting than a traditional refinery hall.
Sectors and markets opening up in Australia
Several Australian sectors are natural early adopters for ALS2 platinum recovery. University research groups, including those at the University of Sydney, Monash University and the Australian National University, hold sizeable inventories of retired catalysts and crucibles that would benefit from periodic on-site processing. Hospital pathology networks, which generate spent electrodes from automated analysers, form a second predictable feedstock stream.
Mining and mineral processing labs are a third segment. Australia hosts world-class nickel, copper and cobalt operations across Western Australia and Queensland, and several of those operations run bench- and pilot-scale hydrometallurgy programs that consume platinum labware. A growing ecosystem of boutique recyclers in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth is also taking shape, positioning itself as specialist handlers of laboratory and dental scrap and bundling small volumes from multiple sites into ALS2-sized batches. Their business models depend on the clean, modular technology that ALS2 represents, and they are likely to be the first Australian operators to commission full containerised installations.
Operators, researchers and policy makers tracking the rollout can review the most current operating data, partnership announcements and pilot outcomes through the ALS2 project news channel. As Australian laboratories and boutique recyclers weigh the case for switching away from aqua regia, those updates offer a benchmark for throughput, purity and consent timelines before commissioning a containerised installation.
The combination of closed-loop chemistry, compact footprint and a maturing support ecosystem makes ALS2 a credible foundation for the next generation of platinum recovery from laboratory and crucible scrap across Australia. Speak with the ALS2 consortium today to align pilot data, site constraints and a deployment timeline for a containerised installation.