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Is platinum renewable?

We are doing a school report and we wanted to know if platinum is renewable?
If you could tell us we would be very happy (Delighted)

Sam and Duncan
Students - Richmond, Nelson, New Zealand
2007

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Hi, guys. It's fine to post a question when you don't know the answer, but if you don't understand the question, it's bad for your education for us to answer it. So please explain what you mean by "renewable" in this context, or give me a couple of examples of renewable and non-renewable things -- and then I'll be happy to tell you whether platinum meets that criteria.

If you can't do that, you need to ask the teacher to explain the question. Good luck!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2007

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2007

Yes, platinum is renewable like most other metals but there is a certain amount of loss involved in the recycling process. One may note the following:

Reduction is 100% more efficient than reuse
Reuse is 93% more efficient than recycling
Recycling is 97% more efficient than disposal

Source: Seminar presented by Ken Kurtzig, CEO of iReuse LLC, Santa Clara Convention Center, California - 14 JUN 2007.

Blake Kneedler
Feather Hollow Eng. - Stockton, California

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Thanks, Blake. Platinum is certainly re-useable in that context and your figures are thought-inspiring. But the boys' question bothered me because I felt they were seeking a yes or no answer to a question they didn't understand.

For another way to look at it, is petroleum renewable? Well, lubricating oil can be reused and recycled much like platinum. Plastic made from petroleum can be recycled to varying degrees, too. But if a teacher were to ask whether petroleum is renewable, s/he would certainly be looking for "No" for the answer. Similarly, the platinum we had in the earth eons ago is all we have.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2007

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If 'renewable' includes recycling, the answer is yes. A very high percentage of platinum scrap (old jewelry, catalytic converters) is recycled. At present, platinum production from recycling equals that from primary production (mining).

Ken Vlach [deceased]
- Goleta, California
Finishing.com honored Ken for his countless carefully researched responses. He passed away May 14, 2015.
Rest in peace, Ken. Thank you for your hard work which the finishing world, and we at finishing.com, continue to benefit from.
2007

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Come on guys, the question was ..."is platinum renewable", not is it recyclable.

The answer is NO.

Platinum is an element and the earth contains a finite total quantity. Unless you have access to a lot of nuclear technology or the Philosopher's Stone.

Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England
2007

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I agree with Geoff. Platinum is an element and as such it is not renewable because it cannot be made from other materials. However, once a platinum article has been used and is beyond its useful life, it can be recovered and made into another article. Unfortunately, as the figures above show, this is not a fully 100% efficient process and some of the platinum will become "unavailable" or lost to the process. Nevertheless, the platinum will still exist, but in an nonuseable form and hence the amount of useable platinum will be decreased.

No naturally occurring element can be considered renewable - there is a fixed amount of it on the Earth and this will not alter, unless we start to discharge it into space. The only thing that changes is the form that element is in.

Even the amount of carbon on the Earth is fixed, but it is in many different forms such as carbon dioxide, coal, natural gas, organic matter, oil etc. It is the way we use it that causes the problem, because when we burn oil, which was made from carbon that was "alive" billions of years ago, we are just putting the carbon back into our environment in a different form, namely carbon dioxide. Consequently, when we burn oil, we are releasing the carbon (as carbon dioxide) that was around in the from of plants and animals, but that had nevertheless originally been carbon dioxide before it got converted to living things.

When we use biofuels, we are simply converting carbon dioxide into a plant that we use to produce energy and re-release the carbon dioxide so it can be converted back into a plant ad infinitum. Consequently, if we consume as much plant material as we need to make energy and release the gases, these gases can be reconverted to plants and we have a steady state of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Or at least that is what the theory says....

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2007