Cody's Lab collects a sample of dust from the side of a highway and refines it to recover platinum-group metals deposited by catalytic converters. The video walks through the chemistry of separating and assaying the precious metals.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters cite it as a vivid demonstration that roadside and tire/pavement dust contains recoverable platinum.
“We can literally sweep platinum off our highways, as Cody'sLab demonstrates[0].”HN comment, 2018
“We can literally sweep platinum off our highways, as Cody'sLab demonstrates[0].”
Refining platinum from highway dust
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We can literally sweep platinum off our highways, as Cody'sLab demonstrates[0]. Platinum is a catalyst in auto mufflers to change NOx molecules back to N2 and CO2. And a tiny amount flakes off as a gas-car drives. Sweeping a 10-foot section of heavily-used freeway shoulder netted them $0.55 of platinum. At this rate, there should be $1000 of platinum per mile of freeway shoulder. [0] this video
Cites itcwkossOct 2019
“Cody's Lab did an episode where he collected and refined freeway dust”
Refining freeway dust into platinum ore
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Cody's Lab did an episode where he collected and refined freeway dust: it's actually decent grade platinum 'ore' from catalytic converter deposition this video
Cites itehntoMar 2020
Refining precious metals from highway roadside dust
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Roads are filthy. Cody's Lab once did a video where he collected road dust from the side of a highway, and refined out all the precious metals from it. That's from one small section of highway, just imagine the scale of the pollution across the whole of the states. Concrete dust, rubber, metals, fuel, oil. Cars and car infrastructure is dirty business. this video
Cites itehntoSep 2020
Refining precious metals out of roadside dust
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Which reminds me of a video of Cody's Lab, where he refines precious metals out of roadside dust: this video
Cites itddtaylorNov 2021
Extracting precious metals from pavement
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You may also like this video on attempting to extract those precious metals from the pavement itself: this video
Cites itjaggederestJul 2024
Refining highway dust for platinum group metals
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There's a Cody's Lab video where they refine highway dust for platinum group metals leaking from catalytic converters: this video
Cites itthenickdudeJul 2024
Refining platinum from roadside highway dust
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Reminds me of Cody's Lab refining platinum from roadside dust from the highway: (due to catalytic converters) this video
