Honda has announced it has teamed up with the Japan Metals & Chemicals Company to develop what is being hailed as the world’s first mass-production rare earth recycling process.
The companies confirmed late last week that they have developed a new technique for extracting 17 rare chemical elements from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from Honda hybrid vehicles at dealers in Japan, North America and Europe.
Previous techniques for extracting rare earth metals have been undertaken on a relatively small scale and have required highly controlled conditions. But while Honda has provided relatively few details on the precise nature of its process, it claims to have developed the first process in the world to “extract rare earth metals as part of a mass-production process at a recycling plant”.
The company added that the technique had already been successfully trialled on around 2,000 batteries.
“Previously, Honda had been applying a heat treatment to used nickel-metal hydride batteries and recycling nickel-containing scrap for recycling use as a raw material for stainless steel,” the company said in a statement.
Source: Greenbusiness.com
By James Murray