Precious metal catalysts are the cornerstone of the development of new chemical materials, and the self-sufficiency rate of some catalyst materials in the field of new materials in mainland China is insufficient, and the demand for import substitution is urgent.
According to the data of the Johnson Matthey platinum group metals market report, the demand for platinum, palladium and rhodium is generally on the rise in the fields of automotive exhaust catalysis and chemical refining.
Among them, platinum group metal materials are known as "industrial vitamins", and there is no other material that can replace the position of platinum catalysts, and the industry has a strong growth momentum in recent years.
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Precious metal catalysts
Precious metal catalysts accelerate the speed of chemical reactions, but they do not become the end product of the reaction itself.
According to statistics, at least 42,000 raw materials and chemical intermediates in the world are directly or indirectly synthesized by catalysts, and their importance is highlighted.
Almost all types of precious metals can be used as catalysts, but platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, gold, silver, etc. are the most commonly used, especially platinum and palladium have the widest range of applications.
Compared with non-precious metal catalysts, noble metal catalysts exhibit excellent catalytic activity, excellent selectivity, high temperature resistance, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance and other excellent characteristics.
These catalysts can be divided into two categories, heterogeneous and homogeneous, depending on the type of catalytic reaction.
Heterogeneous catalysts are usually insoluble solids, and their main form is reactive metals or oxides supported on porous inorganic supports.
The common forms of homogeneous catalysts are soluble compounds, such as palladium chloride and rhodium chloride.
In addition, the precious metals in waste catalysts can be recycled and reprocessed, which is widely used in the field of organic synthesis.
Platinum metal catalyst industry chain
The upstream of the industrial chain of precious metal catalysts includes the mining of precious metal minerals, and precious metal raw materials account for a large proportion of the product cost, for example, the cost of precious metals in platinum-based precious metal catalysts usually accounts for more than 90%. Downstream applications are widely involved in many fields such as pharmaceuticals, new chemical materials, pesticides, dyes and pigments, and energy-based chemicals.
The mainland's dependence on platinum group metals imports is quite high, with platinum as high as 90%, palladium and rhodium 70% and 80% respectively. Its strategic value is becoming increasingly prominent, and the mainland is likely to establish a strategic reserve to further highlight the strategic attributes of platinum group metals.
Globally, PGM reserves are limited and unevenly distributed. According to statistics from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the global reserves of platinum group metals in 2022 were about 70,000 tons, mainly distributed in countries such as South Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe and the United States. Among them, South Africa has the most abundant reserves, accounting for 90% of the world's total reserves.
In the field of fine chemicals, precious metals are excellent catalysts in industrial reactions such as chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and in the field of environmental protection, they are widely used in automobile exhaust purification, catalytic combustion of organic compounds, oxidation of CO and NO, etc., and are the core materials in the development of new fuel cells for precious metal catalysts in new energy.
Downstream application scenarios of precious metal catalysts:
Source: Public collation
Precious metal catalysts are also widely used in the field of pharmaceutical and chemical industry. A large number of precious metal catalysts are used in the production of antibiotics, antiviral drugs, next-generation targeted cancer therapeutics, vitamins, cardiovascular drugs, and rheumatology immunology drugs.
Application scenarios of precious metal catalysts in the pharmaceutical field:
Source: Company prospectus, Guosen Securities
Precious metal catalyst market competition pattern and leading combing
The technical barriers to catalyst production technology are high. The major players in the early market were overseas chemical giants.
The global precious metal catalyst market has been developing for more than a century. World-renowned manufacturers such as Johnson Matthey, Evonik, Engelhardt, American Standard Catalysts, American UOP and BASF, etc., have in-depth product supply in many fields, and have accumulated a large number of patents and intellectual property rights, almost monopolizing the global high-end precious metal catalyst market.
At present, these companies also dominate the high-end chemicals market.
In recent years, some domestic enterprises have made breakthroughs through independent research and development. At the same time, some domestic chemicals with large consumption and rapid growth, such as propylene oxide and ethylene glycol, are still highly dependent on imports, and one of the important reasons is the lack of self-owned technology of core catalysts, which restricts the domestic substitution process of some chemicals.
The progress of catalyst technology is expected to improve the domestic substitution of some chemicals.
Among the upstream manufacturers in the industrial chain, Guiyan Platinum is the leader in the integration of new precious metal materials, and the company is restructured from the Kunming Precious Metals Research Institute, one of the world's three major precious metal research institutes. The company now has the ability to produce 100 tons of precious metals per year, and its product line covers four major fields: environmental protection catalytic functional materials, precious metal high-purity materials, special functional materials and information functional materials. #贵金属##铂金##黄金##新材料##化工##财经#
Haotong Technology is a leader in precious metal recycling, with a significant expansion of production capacity and deep cultivation in the field of precious metal recycling, focusing on the recycling market in the domestic recycling industry, and its main products are platinum, palladium, rhodium, silver and other precious metals and their series of new material products.
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Northwest Institute of Nonferrous Metals and some colleges and universities are the main forces in the basic research of precious metal catalysts.
In terms of petrochemical catalysts, PetroChina and Sinopec have their own research institutes and production enterprises, and most of the catalysts they produce can meet domestic demand and export to foreign countries.
In the field of fine chemicals, the main units engaged in the research and production of precious metal catalysts include Xi'an Kaili, Shaanxi Ruike, Kaida Catalysis, Hangzhou Kangna, Shanghai Xunkai, Zhejiang Metallurgical Institute and Xinnuoke.
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