Iridium Recovery & Refining
Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal and a critical material for green-hydrogen electrolyzers and high-temperature applications. Viyanmani recovers iridium from spent catalysts, crucibles, and electrochemical scrap.
What is Iridium?
Iridium (Ir, atomic number 77) is the most corrosion-resistant metal known and one of the densest naturally occurring elements.
It withstands extreme temperatures and aggressive chemistry, making it essential for crucibles, spark plugs, and — increasingly — proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) water electrolysis for green hydrogen.
Iridium is among the scarcest elements in the Earth's crust, so recovery is critical to scaling clean-hydrogen technology.
Industries using Iridium
Iridium applications
- Anode catalysts for PEM green-hydrogen electrolyzers
- High-temperature crucibles for single-crystal growth
- Long-life automotive spark-plug electrodes
- Electrochemical and specialty electrode coatings
- Radiotherapy sources and scientific instrumentation
Recovering and refining Iridium
Our integrated route recovers Iridium from secondary materials and refines it to 99.9%+ purity.
Recovery Process
Iridium-bearing crucibles, spent catalysts, and electrochemical scrap are sampled and processed to collect iridium into a refinable concentrate, with careful control given iridium's resistance to conventional treatment.
Extraction Process
Iridium is one of the most difficult metals to dissolve. Viyanmani employs high-energy oxidative dissolution to mobilize iridium so it can enter the refining stream.
Recycling Process
As demand from hydrogen electrolysis grows, recycling iridium from spent electrolyzer components and industrial scrap is becoming essential to a sustainable clean-energy supply chain.
Purification
Iridium is separated from the wider PGM stream via selective precipitation and reduced to high-purity powder, then verified by ICP-OES.
Why refine Iridium with Viyanmani
- Expertise in dissolving and refining a highly resistant metal
- Recovery aligned with growing green-hydrogen demand
- High-purity refined iridium powder with certification
- Secure handling of extremely high-value consignments
Iridium and sustainability
- Recovers one of Earth's scarcest elements for reuse
- Directly supports the scale-up of green-hydrogen infrastructure
- Reduces demand pressure on very limited primary supply
Iridium questions, answered
Common questions about how Iridium is recovered, recycled, and refined.
Iridium is the key anode catalyst in proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Because iridium is extremely scarce, recovering it from spent electrolyzer stacks is vital to scaling clean-hydrogen production sustainably.
Other metals we refine
Recover Iridium from your materials
Talk to our specialists about recovering and refining Iridium from your spent catalysts, scrap, or residues.