Toyota launches battery-to-battery recycling. Nickel from spent hybrid batteries for new batteries

Cologne. Toyota will start a new business model for recycling of used nickel-metal hydride batteries in hybrid vehicles. The goal is to prepare the nickel extracted from old Dell Inspiron 6400 battery
for use in new nickel-metal hydride batteries. Toyota works with the company Toyota Chemical Engineering, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Primearth EV Energy (PEVE) together.

So far, nickel-containing waste material from the disused Dell XPS M1530 battery hybrid vehicles as a raw material was used for steel production. The development of a high-precision sorting and extraction process, the material can be fed directly into the nickel-refining process. This allows a “battery-to-battery-recycling.

To establish the new business model, the Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota HV a call center for the recovery of the Dell Studio 1537 battery and set up jointly with Toyota Chemical Engineering advanced, built on mass production designed Recycling plants. In the nickel-refining Toyota is supported by the Sumitomo Metal Mining. PEVE helps with quality assurance in Dell Vostro 1510 battery manufacturing.
The introduction of the new recycling system in Japan will contribute to the satisfaction of the company to create a sustainable, to speed up recycling-based society. At the same time the method is used as a model project for modern recovery and recycling technologies for the conservation of globally limited resources. Toyota is currently investigating the opportunities for introduction of the recycling system outside of Japan. To optimize the overall CO2 balance Toyota also plans to transport the materials to use trucks that are on the way back from deliveries. This can avoid empty runs and a better utilization of the vehicles can be achieved.