In order to remove titanium material from inside a vehicle's catalytic converter, the converter must first be removed completely from the vehicle's exhaust system. Normally, catalytic converter removal is accomplished by unscrewing the bolts that bolt a converter to the exhaust system or by cutting off the converter with a saw or welding torch. Complete removal of a catalytic converter from a vehicle allows easy access to its inner catalyst material--the part that contains the titanium pieces. After removing the titanium pieces (along with the catalyst material), the catalytic converter is no longer legal for vehicle use and must be discarded.
After removing a catalytic converter from a vehicle, the next step toward removing the inner titanium pieces is to remove the catalytic converter's catalyst material that's located deep inside the converter. These catalyst pieces, which look very similar to small pieces of charcoal, are the parts of a catalytic converter that burn the unburned exhaust gases as exhaust flows through a catalytic converter. These pieces can be removed simply by standing the catalytic converter lengthwise up--one open end facing up, the other end facing the ground--and tapping and pounding on the raised end until the catalyst pieces start to fall out of the bottom end. This process normally takes only a few minutes to retrieve all the pieces.
After the catalytic converter catalyst material has been removed from inside, the titanium--which is used as a coating on the catalyst material--can easily be removed. The titanium normally appears as a silvery bronze coating atop the catalyst pieces. It can be scraped and/or gouged off each individual titanium piece by using a small knife, spoon or small instrument. A small rag or cup can be used to gather the removed titanium pieces. This can take quite awhile on some of the larger, more expensive catalytic converter models with large amounts of both catalyst material and titanium coating.
