Honda is expanding its partnership with European recycling specialists SNAM (Société Nouvelle d’Affinage des Métaux), which will collect used electric vehicle (EV) batteries from Honda dealers in 22 countries and prepare them for a second life as electrical storage systems for homes or businesses.
This French companies activity revolves around recycling of Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel-Metal-Hydride and Lithium-Ion mainly from two verticals:
- Portables – from mobile phones, portable computers, cordless tools, etc.
- Industrials – from aviation, the railways, the military and electrical vehicles, etc.
As demand for expanding range of hybrid and electric cars continues to grow so does the requirement to manage batteries in the most environmentally-friendly way possible.
Recent market developments provide these batteries a second life application like powering businesses or by using recent improved recycling techniques to recover useful raw materials which can be used as feed stock into the production of new batteries.
All of that is great for batteries that are still in relatively good shape, but what about damaged batteries? In that case, they’re largely unsuitable for “second life” applications, but they’re far from worthless.
Materials such as cobalt and lithium can be extracted using hydro-metallurgy techniques involving the use of aqueous chemistry. These can be reused in the production of new batteries, color pigments or as useful additives for mortar.
A dedicated web platform will enable dealers to request Europe-wide collection of used batteries.Honda and SNAM have worked together since 2013, to ensure the traceability of end-of-life batteries and dispose of them in accordance with European Union environmental standards.
Reference- CNN Business, Honda Press Release, Electrek, Clean Technica