Batteries from Honda’s electric and hybrid vehicles are to get a ‘second life’ in an expanded recycling initiative with France’s Société Nouvelle d’Affinage des Métaux (SNAM).

New hydrometallurgy processes enable extraction and recycling of materials from batteries not suitable for a second-life application

The two firms partnered back in 2013 to ensure the traceability of end-of-life batteries and dispose of them in accordance with European Union environmental standards.

Now, the companies are investigating the possibility of using batteries in a ’second life’ for the storage of renewable energy in industrial applications.

If not suitable for a second-life application, the batteries – collected from dealers with the help of a dedicated web platform – will have valuable metals such as lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) extracted using new hydrometallurgy techniques and then processed for recycling.

Tom Gardner, senior vice president at Honda Motor Europe, said: “As demand for Honda’s 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 may allow us to make use of these batteries in a second-life application for powering businesses or by using recent improved recycling techniques to recover useful raw materials which can be used as feedstock into the production of new batteries.”