Toyota Motor Corporation has launched a new business that will recycle used nickel-metal hydride batteries, said to be the first of its kind worldwide.
Toyota Chemical Engineering Company, owned by Toyota, Sumitomo Metal Mining Company and Toyota’s battery production subsidiary Primearth EV Energy Company, will recycle the nickel in nickel-metal hydride batteries so that they can be reused for new batteries of the same kind, Toyota said.
Recycling worn-out batteries is one of the issues the auto industry is trying to address as carmakers prepare to roll out more E.V.’s and hybrids. Toyota currently uses nickel-metal hydride batteries in their electric vehicles.
In current practice nickel-metal hydride batteries recovered from discarded cars are recycled as a raw material for stainless-steel manufacturing.
The Japanese car maker and its partners plan to use more precise nickel sorting and extraction technologies that refine nickel from old batteries so these can be processed into new batteries directly. This is called “battery-to-battery” recycling.
Most hybrid cars in the market today are powered by nickel-metal hydride batteries. These include Toyota Prius Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid and the Honda Insight.
However, many manufacturers are beginning to shift to lithium-ion batteries, which has been immensely successful in the electric car sector.
Some industry experts believe lithium-ion batteries will soon replace nickel-metal hydride batteries because of its much lower self-discharge rate, which is at about 3 percent a month compared to 30 percent in other batteries.
It can also hold more energy relative to battery weight, perform better in low temperatures and live through many recharging cycles.
Toyota said in a statement it is considering establishing a recycling system overseas.
Market analyst Frost & Sullivan forecasts that revenues from the European battery waste management market alone will grow to $74 million by 2016, from the $10.3 million revenues recorded in 2009.
