With tensions between China and the US, electric car manufacturers are trying to reduce their dependence on rare earth supplies, which create an eternal magnet that fuel electric vehicles. Most of these engines are made of rare earth metal from China.
Nissan, in collaboration with Katsunori Yamaguchi, a professor at Waseda University, has established a new recycling technology to recover rare earth compounds at high purity and efficiency without dismantling the engine, as usual.
Permanent magnetic engines, using rare earths such as neodymium and dysprosi - are powered by nature. This is the center of many electric motors, providing energy to the clutch of the transmission system.
With new technology in the dried refining method, Nissan boils fans in the oven over 1,400 degrees Celsius, extracting them as liquid oxide, then separating them to extract rare earths.
Kazuhiro Ogawa, senior manager at Nissan, said the new method will shorten processing time to about 4 hours instead of 8 hours as before, as well as reduce recycling costs by half.
Nissan will continue to test with larger facilities, with the aim of making the process commerciable in the coming years. Reducing the use of rare earths is a major challenge because uneven resources are distributed, prices fluctuate depending on the balance of supply and demand and the exploitation and cooking process that affects the ecosystem, Mr. Ogawa told Reuters.
