IMA batteries come in the form of square boxes mounted to the car body. These boxes are filled with cylindrical modules that look like dry cell batteries packed in lines.
Taisuke Honma, Deputy Manager of Oguni Works, Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., described the recycling process: “First, we disassemble the battery and remove the modules. These are calcinated at high heat, pulverized, and then the iron scrap and powder are separated. When this is done well, the rare metals and rare earths can be recovered by subjecting the powder to chemical processes.”
Calcination and pulverization are required to extract the rare earths. That was already obvious to all the engineers previously engaged in recycling. The real technical challenge was how to make the calcination and pulverization process as efficient as possible, to extract the greatest possible quantity of rare earths.
In the spring of 2012, the rare earths recycling business finally went into operation. The plant has a maximum processing capacity of around 400 tons per year, with rare earth production on the order of two tons per month. This was the first time in the world that rare earths had been recycled not on a laboratory scale, but as a mass production process. Another notable fact is that the recovered resources will be reused as material for new batteries. Norihiro Toba, Manager, Battery Materials Group, Battery Materials Dept., Japan Metals & Chemicals Co. explained: “As a materials manufacturer, our company is well aware of the demands for material quality and composition. That’s why we’re able to produce materials that can be reused. That’s the difference between us and companies that only do recycling.”
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