Rare Earth Recycling Technologies Applied in Nickel-hydrogen Battery

Recently, Honda took the lead in the global establishment of recycling mechanism of the nickel-hydrogen battery in hybrid vehicles, which means they applied the rare earth they extracted from the the nickel-hydrogen battery of hybrid vehicles as nickel-hydrogen battery materials to practice. In this way, they realized the first cycle of rare earth resources in the world.

Previously, Honda has extracted rare earth oxides from the waste nickel-hydrogen batteries in the factories of Heavy Chemical Industry Corp. in Japan. This time, they did further electrolysis on these oxides and successfully extracted rare earth metals which can be used directly as the material for the anode of nickel-hydrogen battery. Adopting that measure, we can refine out rare earths with its purity up to 90%. The rare earths extracted are the same as those taken from the mines, but the recovery rate of the former rare earth can reach 80% or more.

At the very beginning of March, Heavy Chemical Industry Corp. has already provided Japanese battery factory with this kind of rare earth as materials for anodes of nickel-hydrogen batteries. The rare earth used by this batch of materials came from the nickel-hydrogen batteries of 386 new Honda hybrid vehicles, which can not be used after suffered from the great earthquake in the eastern Japan. From now on, as long as the used nickel-hydrogen batteries are accumulated to a certain amount, Honda will put them all into the same recycling way.

In spite of the nickel-hydrogen batteries, Honda will spare no effort to extract rare earth from all kinds of used materials so as to promote the recycling of rare resources. Later, at the same time as Honda trying his best to develop hybrid cars, he will constantly improve reusing them, recycling mechanism and reduce the pressure of environment of the mobile society.

Honda's nickel-hydrogen battery recycling mechanism:

       
 

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