Honda develops new chemical sorting technology for plastics

Honda R&D Co. Ltd., headquartered in Waco, Japan, has developed a new chemical sorting technology designed to sort and extract reusable plastics from waste plastic parts that contain solid contaminants unique to end-of-life automobiles. 

The company says it will build a pilot facility with a maximum processing capacity of 350 tons per year and verify the technology by 2026, with the goal of putting it into practical use by 2029. 

Its new technology improves the solid contaminant separation rate by more than 99 percent, according to the company, which says it previously had not exceeded 80 percent. 

“Reusable plastics extracted through the chemical sorting technology with a purity of more than 99 percent will be reused as automotive materials, enabling closed-loop recycling,” according to the company. 

Honda says its technology dissolves the plastic in a solvent to remove solid contaminants and extract high-purity resin. According to the company, waste automotive plastic parts usually contain nonplastic contaminants, including metal inserts, pieces of rubber and reinforcing materials such as glass or fiber. 

Recycling of plastic parts containing solid contaminants mostly has been conducted manually or by machine. Honda says these processes incur increased costs in addition to other limitations, including the unpredictability of size, complexity of the materials and difficulty in scaling up. 

Honda says the new technology eliminates the need to adjust specifications based on the size of each containment, enabling the thorough removal of contaminants regardless of size. It also minimizes the need for maintenance and filter replacement, enabling the establishment of a continuous process capable of stable operation on an industrial scale. 

According to Honda, other benefits include reduction of capital investment through the reduction of steps in the sorting process, reduction of process cost by shortening the process, improvement of recycling yield and efficient recovery of high-quality plastics. 

“Resource circulation has been one of the key focus areas for Honda to further advance its mobility products and services, and this newly developed technology is expected to be applicable also to other materials, including engineering plastics,” according to Honda.