As Honda goes green, its emissions grow

TOKYO -- Perhaps Honda Motor Co. set the bar too low.

In its annual environmental report, Honda says it already has exceeded nearly all of its main emissions and recycling goals for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014.

It is ahead in cutting carbon dioxide emissions from corporate activities and logistics. It has beaten its goal of slashing waste per unit of revenue and of achieving zero landfill waste.

Waste conservation is above trajectory. So is the campaign to cut emissions of volatile organic compounds, the stinky solvents, glues and paints used throughout a vehicle.

Auto recycling, too, already has exceeded Honda's target, leaving only motorcycle recycling with work left to do.

Further ahead, Honda has loftier targets. By the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, it wants to cut CO2 emissions from its automobiles, motorbikes and power products 30 percent from 2001 levels.

Automobiles are only halfway there. Honda has cut emissions, measured in grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven, from its automobile fleet just 15 percent.

Therein lies the biggest hurdle to going green.

Despite the progress, Honda's overall carbon footprint is increasing. Last year, Honda began calculating its global greenhouse gas emissions -- including that of its manufacturing, its suppliers' manufacturing, its procurement of raw materials, its logistical and transportation needs and the output of all Honda products currently in use worldwide.

The estimate shows that emissions from Honda's entire value chain rose to 275.9 million tons of equivalent CO2 in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, up from 226.1 million tons a year earlier. Equivalent CO2 is an expression of all greenhouse gas emissions in a way that equates them to CO2.

Honda is simply producing more cars. Emissions from Honda products account for a whopping 82 percent of its total annual greenhouse gas emissions footprint.

"This means that figuring out how to reduce emissions from the use of Honda products poses the greatest challenge to reducing total emissions," Honda's report said.

Because of increasing sales, Honda expects its total emissions footprint to keep expanding until at least the 2020s. Honda says reversing the increase will require ever-more fuel-efficient vehicles and an increasing reliance on renewable energy. As the report says, "At some point, we need to turn this growth curve around."

Source;
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130701/OEM05/307019993/as-honda-goes-green-its-emissions-grow#axzz2Xtyq53gw

Honda Motor Co Ltd : Honda to Reuse Rare Earth Metal Extracted from Nickel-metal Hydride Batteries

Corporate June 18, 2013  

 

Honda to Reuse Rare Earth Metal Extracted from Nickel-metal Hydride Batteries in Hybrid Vehicles for the Motors for Hybrid Vehicle Motors 

 

TOKYO, Japan, June 18, 2013 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. agreed with TDK Corporation and Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., Ltd. (JMC) to jointly pursue the reuse of a rare earth metal extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries in hybrid vehicles for magnets of new hybrid vehicle motors.

In early March of this year, Honda began supplying a battery manufacturer with rare earth metals extracted from used nickel-metal hydride batteries at a JMC plant for reuse in new nickel-metal hydride batteries of hybrid vehicles. Now, Honda will expand the reuse of extracted rare earth metals to motors for hybrid vehicles to achieve the further recycling of this limited and precious resources.

The three companies will begin detailed discussion toward the reuse in motors and begin the process as soon as a sufficient volume of used nickel-metal hydride batteries is secured.

Honda will remain committed to reducing the environmental footprint of the mobility society as a whole by developing fuel-efficient vehicles including hybrid vehicles, and also by strengthening networks which lead to the reuse and recycling of Honda products.

Source;
http://www.4-traders.com/HONDA-MOTOR-CO-LTD-6492457/news/Honda-Motor-Co-Ltd-Honda-to-Reuse-Rare-Earth-Metal-Extracted-from-Nickel-metal-Hydride-Batteries-17027962/

Honda Recycling Rare Earth Materials From Used EV Batteries

By Joshua S. Hill of www.cleantechnica.com

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more important to the future of a green planet Earth, with production and sales increasing worldwide. Vehicle manufacturers the world over are making electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles a priority, and adjunct companies focusing on recharging and distance calculations are popping up all over the place.

Arguably the key component for any electric vehicle is its battery, a nickel-metal hydride battery in many cases.

However, batteries have also proved to be a sticking point when it comes to the ‘actual’ greenness of an electric vehicle; battery creation is an intensive process, and then — at the end of a battery’s lifespan — there is the question of how to dispose of it.

One of these issues may be on the way out, however, according to Honda, which has announced on its website that it has established the world’s first process (according to Honda internal research) that reuses rare earth metals extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries in the creation of new nickel-metal hydride batteries.

One of the key elements of a nickel-metal hydride battery is the use of rare earth metals like Lanthanum. Honda has now managed to extract an oxide containing rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries at the Japan Metals & Chemicals company (JMC).

The process involves applying molten salt electrolysis to the oxide from the battery, allowing them to extract metallised rare earth that can be used directly as negative-electrode materials for nickel-metal hydride batteries.

The rare earth metals extracted have a purity of more than 99%, which is as high as that of ordinarily traded and newly mined rare earth metals. On top of that, the new process enables the extraction of as much as 80% of rare earth metals contained in a nickel-metal hydride battery.

Honda isn’t just leaving this in the laboratory, either. Honda plans to use the extracted rare earth metals from JMC in new batteries as early as this month, as negative-electrode materials.

The current batch of rare earth metals were harvested from 386 Honda hybrid vehicles, which were stored prior to being on sale, but which were subsequently damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Minus a handy supply of unused and damaged hybrids sitting in a warehouse somewhere, Honda plans to begin using the new process on batteries collected by Honda dealers through battery replacements. The company also hopes to extract rare earth materials from various used parts to further how much it is recycling.


Source;
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/04/honda-recycling-rare-earth-materials-from-used-ev-batteries/