[valw]

Folks, just to clarify: "catalyst" is a very broad chemistry term for "something that helps a chemical reaction take place without being a reagent nor product of said reaction." So don't get the wrong idea: catalysts have quite specific uses, and you cannot substitute any one catalyst for any other.

[Waterluvian]

Yes. Thanks for that clarification. What I meant in my original question is if we consume huge amounts of gallium to do this. Ie. can it scale?

[adrian_b]

It depends a lot on which will be the lifetime of the catalyst at industrial scales.

Gallium is one of the most expensive metals, not because it is very rare, but because it is very diluted. There are no minerals with a high concentration of gallium, enough to make their commercial exploitation worthwhile.

There are no mines of gallium. Gallium is always extracted as a secondary product in mining operations where either aluminum or zinc is the main product.

Because of that, the available quantity of gallium depends on the volume of the productions of aluminum and of zinc, and it follows their yearly oscillations.