Shanghai (ZXZC)- Volvo Cars announced on Nov. 17 it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai Jiao Tong University China-UK Low Carbon College ("SJTU-LCC") to jointly boost the incubation of sustainable development technologies.

Meanwhile, the Swedish premium carmaker inaugurated its Asia-Pacific Sustainable Innovation Lab in Shanghai.

Photo credit: Volvo Cars

Under the agreement, Volvo Cars and SJTU-LCC will conduct research in the three cutting-edge technology areas of carbon capture and utilization (CCU), bio-based materials applications, and direct recycling of battery materials.

Volvo Cars said its Plant Factory, which is located at its manufacturing base in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, is the automotive industry's first demonstration project focusing on CCU. It also represents the carmaker's latest practice in which the Climate Action and circular economy are integrated into engineering design, manufacturing operation, as well as supply chain in the automotive industry.

Under the Plant Factory project, the automaker works on researching the CCU effects of different plants, and exploring the closed-loop applications of bio-based materials in car manufacturing process and complete vehicles by means of growing proper plants in a specifically designed CCU environmental chamber and utilizing plants in the form of low-carbon economy.

Amid the implementation of circular economy, Volvo Cars recycles lithium ion batteries, one of the key components to electric vehicles, and reuses their crucial raw materials, as part of the company's efforts to maximize materials' reused value and minimize wastes.

Volvo Cars said it is dedicated to researching more environment-friendly technologies on battery materials recycling. Its R&D team will explore a "direct technology" which can dispense with the precursor manufacturing process and obtain cathode materials directly, so as to greatly shorten the entire recycling process, and slash carbon emissions and secondary pollutants.