The CHemPGM project aspires to provide a deep insight into the chemistry and mechanisms associated with the exploitation of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) from secondary materials with the ultimate goal to improve and secure the PGMs value chain.

The project aims also to promote knowledge exchange utilizing the full knowledge triangle – universities/ institutions/ RTOs/SMEs in the fields of chemistry, material science, engineering, mineral processing and metallurgy and enable secondments between the organizations for maximal knowledge generation and exchange.

The main challenges concerning Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and the European Union (EU) can be summarized as follows:

– Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) are noble metals: Pt, Pd, Rh, Os, and Ir. In many rapid high-tech applications, PGMs are critical components in technologies that are crucial to Europe’s sustainability.

– PGMs have been defined since 2011 by the EU commission as “critical” raw materials (CRMs) due to the high risk of supply shortage; there is an extremely serious gap between supply and demand.

– PGMs (total or partial) substitution and recycling are essential for global economic sustainability.

– New research and development activities are required to improve the fundamental understanding of new material solutions containing reduced PGM content or recycled PGMs while maintaining or enhancing the performance of the materials, components and products.