2019 年 40 巻 3 号 p. 59-68
Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) are used in many applications because of their valuable properties such as high melting point and specific catalytic activity. Particularly, they play an important role in catalytic converters used by conventional and hybrid vehicles and in reaction catalysts of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Therefore, the introduction of next generation vehicles may significantly transform the pressure on PGMs. Besides, the geological (primary) resources of PGMs are highly concentrated in South Africa and Russia making its supply volatile. For these reasons, this study estimated secondary PGM reserves for Europe, Japan, and the United States until 2050. The results indicate that the introduction of FCVs will lead to an increase of secondary PGM reserves in the future. The difference in PGM secondary reserves due to the difference in introduction of FCVs are estimated to 1,424 tonnes in 2050. On the other hand, the increase caused by FCVs was found not significant because of the decrease in demand for catalytic converter for vehicles in the future.
