Honda Will Recycle Rare Earths in New Hybrid Car Motors

In just a few months, Honda's rare earth metal recycling program rapidly morphed from a lab curiosity to a corporate banality (in a good way?when experimental technologies become run-of-the-mill.). Now the Japanese automaker is taking the next step. Today, a little more than three months since Honda announced a plan to salvage those pricey materials from used nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the company says it will repurpose those rare earths in future hybrid vehicle motors.

Announced back in March, Honda's recovery process?developed in tandem with Japan Minerals & Chemicals Co., Ltd. (JMC)?is reportedly capable of extracting as much as 80 precent of the rare earth metals found within a nickel-metal-hydride battery, resulting in a metal that's 99 percent pure. Before it developed this extraction prodecure, Honda had been melting down the batteries and using the scrap in stainless steel. Shortly thereafter, the automaker began extracting metals on a commercial scale, reusing the newly-extracted metals in new batteries and "a wide range of Honda products."

Now, with the help of JMC and TDK Corporation, Honda plans to reuse those same rare-earths in magnetic motors powering future hybrid vehicles. The manufacturing process is already in place?the three companies are just waiting for a larger, more stable supply of used batteries. Honda's only source of these batteries currently is a voluntary battery donation program, and is actively looking to secure a more robust supply?assumedly through an increase of donations or some sort of arrangement with salvage yards. With a healthy volume of used cells, JMC estimates that at maximum capacity, their plant could produce as much as 400 tons of rare earths per year. By comparison, U.S. rare-earth miner Molycorp produced more than 19,000 metric tons of rare earths by the end of 2012.

Honda is far from the only car manufacturer that's increasingly conscious of its rare earth use. Last fall, Nissan began implementing new magnets that shaved the use of heat-resistant rare earth dysprosium by 40 percent, while GM demonstrated that Chevy Volt batteries could be reused to provide homes with off-grid back-up power. Given that demand for the rare elements could jump as much as 2600 percent over the next 25 years according to one MIT study?and China now controls 97 percent of the market for these critical elements?companies will need even more innovative ways to keep costs down to keep EVs economical. Otherwise consumers might as well opt for a diesel.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/honda-will-recycle-rare-earths-in-new-hybrid-car-motors-15603166?src=rss

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