Zim Engineer One Of Four Finalists In Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

Collins Saburu a Zimbabwean chemical engineer based in South Africa has been named as one of the four finalists in the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. Saburu developed a process to recover precious metals found in the autocatalytic converters. In a statement, Africa Prize said

He developed AltMet, a process that recovers the precious metals found in the autocatalytic converters of all petrol and diesel vehicles. The common car part reduces the toxicity of vehicle gas emissions, and the converter itself contains the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) platinum, palladium and rhodium. These are all valuable and useful for industrial processes, and on the European Union’s Critical Materials List, making a strong case for recycling them…All four of our finalists have found novel ways to address critical challenges in their home countries — in fact, problems that are faced all over the world.

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