Comparative analysis of recycling modes of power batteries based on extended producer-responsibility principle

Abstract

To improve the effectiveness of recycling, echelon utilization, and recovery mechanism of waste power batteries (WPBs), 12 recycling modes were proposed based on extended producer-responsibility principle. By employing profit and sensitivity analyses, we found that resource-recovery companies (Rs) are the key for recycling, echelon utilization, and recovery mechanism. For R, the high resale price of waste LiNi_xMn_yCo_1−x−yO₂ batteries was not conducive to recovering waste batteries. However, the recycling behavior of R was beneficial for resisting the risk of high resale price of waste LiNi_xMn_yCo_1−x−yO₂ batteries. This condition increased the profits by saving on the buying cost and reselling of WPBs to echelon-utilization companies. Following the decrease in the number of recyclers in the recycling system, the profits of R also increased. However, when the proportion of recycled waste LiNi_xMn_yCo_1−x−yO₂ batteries was 100%, the profits of R faced risks due to the high resale price of waste LiNi_xMn_yCo_1−x−yO₂ batteries. For other recyclers, only the power-battery manufacturers (Ms) were willing to reduce the resale price of waste LiNi_xMn_yCo_1−x−yO₂ batteries to let R earn profit because R supplied regenerated materials to M at a lower price than the material companies. This condition created a cycle for WPB recovery and reduced the use of raw materials. Thus, Mode M–R was considered as the optimal recycling mode.