Automotive catalytic converters have a limited life time, after which the catalyst must be replaced or regenerated. The spent catalytic converters contain small amount of precious metals. Recovery of these metals is essential for environmental and economic reasons. The waste electronic equipment is also an attractive source for recovery of precious metals. Precious metals in electronic scraps are concentrated mainly in printed circuits and integrated circuits - so generally in elements that are the most diverse in their composition. Material heterogeneity of these elements is the reason why there is no universal method for processing this type of scrap. Methods used in the world for recovery of precious metals from spent auto catalytic coverters and electronic wastes by pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods were mentioned in this paper. The results of simultaneous melting of electronic waste with spent automotive catalysts were presented. The printed circuit boards were used as the carrier and as a source of copper. The precious metals present in the catalyst were collected in copper.

At present, every launched car must be equipped with a catalytic converter, in which the precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium play catalytic role. Catalytic converters have a limited life time, therefore they have to be replaced and become a valuable source of platinum group metals (PGM). Currently in the world, used auto catalytic converters are processed in pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical way. However, the first step of such treatment should be a chemical analysis. In the paper catalytic carriers were analysed taking into account the level of platinum. Scanning electron microscope was used. The analysis concentrated on testing samples coming from different catalytic carriers. The structure of tested samples, chemical analysis and X-ray energy spectra (EDS) where presented as well as the discussion of obtained results and possible methods of platinum recovery.

Intermetallic phases, as a group of materials which have a great practical importance, both in the past and in the present day, are subject of research on the basis of physicochemical and mechanical properties. The presented studies were conducted for Fe40Al5Cr0.2TiB intermetallic alloy, their purpose was to determine the corrosion resistance of this alloy in an oxidizing environment, at temperatures up to 1373 K. The test material was made of Fe40Al5Cr0.2TiB intermetallic alloy after plastic processing. The kinetics of corrosion, allotropic variants according to the temperature of the process and the surface condition after corrosion were determined during the study. Based on the results obtained, the verification was performed under operating conditions. Taking into account the properties of the FeAl alloys, the working conditions and material requirements of turbochargers, studies have been undertaken to determine the possibility of the use of Fe40Al5Cr0.2TiB intermetallic alloys for components of the hot turbocharger of the automobile with compression ignition engines. The components of the hot turbocharger parts were used from the test material. The tests distance of turbocharger was 80,000 km.

The paper presents the results of tests on the corrosion resistance of Fe40Al5Cr0.2TiB alloy after casting, plastic working using extrusion and rolling methods. Examination of the microstructure of the Fe40Al5Cr0.2TiB alloy after casting and after plastic working was performed on an Olympus GX51 light microscope. The stereological relationships of the alloy microstructure in the state after crystallization and after plastic working were determined. The quantitative analysis of the structure was conducted after testing with the EBSD INCA HKL detector and the Nordlys II analysis system (Channel 5), which was equipped with the Hitachi S-3400N microscope. Structure tests and corrosion tests were performed on tests cut perpendicular to the ingot axis, extrusion direction, and rolling direction. As a result of the tests, it was found that the crystallized alloy has better corrosion resistance than plastically processed material. Plastic working increases the intensity of the electrochemical corrosion of the examined alloy. It was found that as-cast alloy is the most resistant to corrosion in a 5% NaCl compared with the alloys after hot extrusion and after hot rolling. The parameters in this study show the smallest value of the corrosion current density and corrosion rate as well as the more positive value of corrosion potential.