MANILA: Denso Corporation is participating in an automotive recycling process pilot project in Japan.

According to the Toyota-owned car parts manufacturer, the initiative aims to help realize a new end-of-life-vehicle (ELV) processing method to address the challenges faced by the ELV processing sector.

These challenges — Denso pointed out — include a lack of shared standards between the manufacturing and recycling industries as well as severe labor shortages and the need to optimize work environments.

The project, dubbed “Demonstration of Manufacturing-and-Recycling Integrated Process for Horizontal Cycle Enabled by Automated Sophisticated Dismantling of ELVs,” therefore looks to establish a new processing method based on automated sophisticated dismantling and conduct a technology demonstration of an integrated process.

By running a demonstration, the project hopes to achieve the following:

Precisely dismantle automobiles and automotive parts as well as acquire dismantling data; develop an automotive part dismantling system; refine highly pure materials extracted from dismantling; develop recycling processes to meet the quality requirements for automotive parts and evaluation of recycled materials; evaluate automotive parts using recycled materials; and evaluate the carbon dioxide emission reduction effect of recycling ELVs.

Denso joins other companies selected by an industry-government-academia collaborative group. The said companies are Rever Corporation; DIC Corporation; UACJ Corporation; Kaneshiro Sangyou; Kyushu Metal Industry Co., Ltd.; Sumimoto Chemical Company; Daido Steel Co., Ltd.; Toray Industries, Inc.; Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.; Toyota Boshoku Corporation; Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.; Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.; MATEC Inc.; Mitsui Chemicals. Inc.; Waseda University; and others.

The “Demonstration of Manufacturing-and-Recycling Integrated Process for Horizontal Cycle Enabled by Automated Sophisticated Dismantling of ELVs” project began in March and is scheduled to conclude by the end of January 2025.

Photo from Denso Philippines

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