Mitsubishi Chemical and Honda jointly develop recycled acrylic resin for door visors of N-ONE e

Acrylic resin can be converted back into its raw material, MMA

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Honda Motor have jointly developed PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) recycled material for the door visors of the new N-ONE e: mini-electric vehicle. This marks the first time in the automotive industry that recycled acrylic resin has been used for door visors.

Acrylic resin can be converted back into its raw material, MMA (methyl methacrylate), through thermal decomposition, and it is thus suitable for chemical recycling. Since 2021, Mitsubishi Chemical had been conducting joint research with Microwave Chemical Co., on microwave-based thermal decomposition recycling technology toward its present establishment.

However, acrylic resin recovered from end-of-life vehicles has been difficult to recycle into products due to its unstable quality and unsuitability for reuse. To solve the problem, Mitsubishi Chemical started to conduct demonstration experiments aimed at practical recycling of acrylic resin together with Honda and Hokkaido Auto Dismantler corporation. Together with these companies, Mitsubishi Chemical successfully established a recycling technique that prevents foreign matter from being included in recovered acrylic resin, and that secures quality equivalent to virgin acrylic resin.

For the door visors employed for the N-ONE e: vehicle, recycled acrylic resin is recovered and recycled using this technique, enabling reduction of CO2 emissions generated in its manufacturing and disposal, as well as resource recycling.