The lustrous white metal palladium is playing a pivotal role in the advance of promising new technologies, especially the coming hydrogen economy. Compared to its primary "competitor" and chemical cousin platinum, palladium is cheaper and more abundant.
Palladium is prized for jewelry and already is in high demand for use in auto catalytic converters. Many gold, silver and platinum investors also buy palladium.
Here are some of the new-age industries and technologies palladium is in the thick of:
Palladium Use in Fuel Cells
These devices generate electricity and heat by a chemical reaction, with virtually no pollution. Fuel cells require a catalyst, which is usually platinum. Although more abundant palladium is theoretically as functional as platinum and far cheaper, its use in fuel cells has been limited because of palladium's inefficiency, and the tendency for tiny bits (nanoparticles) of the metal to clump together when the cell's hydrogen fuel is converted to electricity to power electrical grids and vehicles.
As reported in the March 26, 2009, online edition of Science Daily, Brown University chemists have found a way to overcome those deficiencies by producing palladium nanoparticles that are twice as active and four times more stable than what’s currently available. The researchers are working on various palladium-based catalysts with enhanced activity and stability for future fuel cell applications.
Palladium membrane technology will likely play another critical role in fuel cell development: fuel "reforming," which is the conversion of mainstream fuels like gasoline and natural gas into hydrogen.
Currently, no hydrogen "gas stations" or distribution system exists, and developing one is a monumental task. The hope of quickly delivering "a fuel cell in every car" hinges on not having to re-invent the vast fuel distribution infrastructure that already exists, and allowing drivers to top off their tanks with gasoline and diesel at regular filling stations. Palladium gasoline reformer technology could convert ordinary gasoline directly into hydrogen right on board cars and trucks, enabling the hydrogen vehicle era to commence in earnest.
The same palladium technology would make possible residential hydrogen fuel cell generators running on natural gas, and even "batteries" for laptops, wireless phones and PDAs, and a host of portable electronic devices. Such "batteries" could, in theory, be rechargeable (with methanol), longer-lasing and more powerful than what's now available.
Palladium Membrane Hydrogen Purification
The fabrication of sensitive semiconductors, the growing of crystals and making photovoltaic cells and solar wafers all require ultra-pure hydrogen. Palladium membrane purifiers provide 99.9999999% pure hydrogen, enabling manufacturers of thin-film solar cells and modules for solar farms to eliminate process-crippling impurities like oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Palladium has been called the "amazing soaking sponge" because it has the unusual property of absorbing up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen.
The Role of Palladium in Cold Fusion
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of energy technology: a potentially cheap, limitless and environmentally-clean source of energy made the way the sun fuses hydrogen nuclei to produce heat and light. Scientists were dubious when, in 1989, two Utah researchers claimed to have done the impossible by achieving nuclear fusion in a lab flask at room temperature, using palladium. Physicists had believed that such a reaction was achievable on earth only at extremely high temperatures generated by mammoth arrays of magnets or lasers.
Cold fusion faded from the scientific landscape. Scientists were unable to replicate the Utah team's results. Then, in March, 2009 U.S. Navy researcher chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss announced "very significant" evidence of some sort of nuclear reaction using equipment similar to what had created an international stir twenty years earlier.
Although the jury is out on cold fusion's future, if it does work, palladium may have a bright future, because the metal is an important component in the process.
Platinum and Palladium Exchange Traded Funds and Notes, ETFs and ETNs
Due to debut in early 2010, ETFs buy and store physical metal and sell investors shares in the total "basket." Share prices track metal prices. An ETN acts as if it owns the metal but does not actually buy and store it; it just settles as if it did. Some analysts predict these new investment vehicles will drive prices higher.
Palladium Production and Mainstream Uses
Most palladium production comes from a few mines concentrated in South Africa and Russia. The world's richest known deposit currently being exploited is in Montana.
50% of palladium demand is for autocatalysts, better known as catalytic converters used in nearly all cars worldwide. Other uses include jewelry (15% of total demand), electronic switches, capacitors and contacts (15%), dental bridges and crowns (12%), chemicals (5%), and all other uses, including investment coins and bullion (3%).
Palladium jewelry was once hard to find, but it now enjoys considerable status. Interest in the metal for rings and other items has continued to grow, especially in China. The metal, along with nickel and silver, is alloyed to produce "white gold."
Palladium is traded on the NYMEX, a public exchange. Its "spot" price is published around the clock.
George Daleiden - I was a science major in college and later a career member of the Institute of Food Technologists. I worked in the processed food and ...
Join the Conversation