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IJSGCE 2023 Vol.12(3): 52-58
DOI: 10.12720/sgce.12.3.52-58

Evaluation of the Recycling Potential of Rare Metals in the Passenger Vehicle Sector in Japan

Jun Osawa *

Department Management Systems, College of Informatics and Human Communication,
Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Ishikawa, Japan.
*Correspondence: j-osawa@neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp

International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy, vol. 12, no. 3, 2023: pp. 52-58
Submitted January 10, 2023; revised May 8, 2023; accepted June 10, 2023; published July 3, 2023.

Full Paper.pdf


Abstract
Japan and many other countries worldwide are moving toward carbon neutrality. Hence, CO2 reduction has become an important issue for the transportation sector. Clean energy vehicles (CEVs), which emit less CO2, are being introduced, but CEVs consume more rare metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel than do gasoline vehicles, owing to their batteries and other components. Moreover, rare metals face risks regarding the supply of primary resources. Therefore, forecasting and analyzing the supply of secondary resources from rare metal recycling is necessary for the introduction of CEVs in Japan. In this study, the number of scrapped passenger vehicles was estimated using the Weibull distribution, and the amount of recyclable rare metals was evaluated. The results show that the amount of recyclable rare metals is expected to increase significantly by approximately 2,600 tons in 2030 compared with 2021 as the number of scrapped CEVs increases in the improvement of the recycling rate scenario. However, demand will also increase significantly; therefore, arterial and venous automotive industries must further collaborate to increase the amount of recycling and maximize its utilization.

Keywords
Automotive industry, circular economy, rare metal, recycling


Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.