384
H. Kuroki et al.
evaluation with the risk of a new recycling business. In this study, some scenarios
are set up and the knowledge to a future recycling business is given by evaluating
risk and economic efficiency for each scenario.
Keywords Recycling system · Economic evaluation · Facility location ·
Sustainable supply chain · Risk of spilled overseas
27.1 Introduction
The demand for rare resources used for high-tech products has been increased due
to growing populations and industrial developments. Since it becomes more likely
to cause resource depletion in the future, a requirement for resource circulation, e.g.,
recycling, reuse, and reproduction, becomes large, consumption of mineral resources
such as rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials (Mark Seddon and
Argus Media Ltd 2016). Global innovation and invention of new technology have
boosted the demand for high-technology products such as batteries, motors, and
mobile devices. REEs can significantly improve the properties of alloys and materials by adding only a small amount, so it becomes an indispensable resource in the
industry. For this reason, the NdFeB-sintered and -bonded magnets are extensively
used as permanent magnet motors in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), home appliances, such as air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, personal computers,
and several mechanical robots. However, there are limited mineral resources, and very
few countries produce these resources. Therefore, if there is a supply disruption such
as export restrictions from REEs resource countries, it will be difficult for countries
that are not REEs resource countries to secure REEs in their own country. One way
to solve this difficulty is to recycle from end-of-life (EOL) products. Recovery of
REEs from EOL products does not require work on natural resources such as mining,
thus reducing the environmental impact. Among them, gold and platinum have low
recovery and cost and are relatively recycled. By comparison, REEs such as Nd is
difficult to secure stable, so the cost of recycling is high and the recycling business
has not progressed.
Therefore, recycling Nd from EVs and HEVs is crucial for achieving a sustainable industry. In order to realize sustainable recycling, the systems considering minimizing a transportation cost of a cyclical form supply chain and forecast of the
resources to collect needs to be designed. However, if the recycling systems are not
economically inefficient, the firm might not implement the project. Therefore, it is
important to evaluate the economic efficiency of supply chain systems. Furthermore,
since there is a possibility that regional trends may appear in the generation of waste,
it is necessary to introduce recycling equipment at a location close to the collected
waste. They focused on the parameter change when determining the product value,
but did not perform multi-period change and waste recovery prediction.
This study considers collecting rare earths from a next-generation car (EV and
HEVs), and reproducing, and aims at performing economic efficiency evaluation
H. Kuroki et al.
evaluation with the risk of a new recycling business. In this study, some scenarios
are set up and the knowledge to a future recycling business is given by evaluating
risk and economic efficiency for each scenario.
Keywords Recycling system · Economic evaluation · Facility location ·
Sustainable supply chain · Risk of spilled overseas
27.1 Introduction
The demand for rare resources used for high-tech products has been increased due
to growing populations and industrial developments. Since it becomes more likely
to cause resource depletion in the future, a requirement for resource circulation, e.g.,
recycling, reuse, and reproduction, becomes large, consumption of mineral resources
such as rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials (Mark Seddon and
Argus Media Ltd 2016). Global innovation and invention of new technology have
boosted the demand for high-technology products such as batteries, motors, and
mobile devices. REEs can significantly improve the properties of alloys and materials by adding only a small amount, so it becomes an indispensable resource in the
industry. For this reason, the NdFeB-sintered and -bonded magnets are extensively
used as permanent magnet motors in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), home appliances, such as air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, personal computers,
and several mechanical robots. However, there are limited mineral resources, and very
few countries produce these resources. Therefore, if there is a supply disruption such
as export restrictions from REEs resource countries, it will be difficult for countries
that are not REEs resource countries to secure REEs in their own country. One way
to solve this difficulty is to recycle from end-of-life (EOL) products. Recovery of
REEs from EOL products does not require work on natural resources such as mining,
thus reducing the environmental impact. Among them, gold and platinum have low
recovery and cost and are relatively recycled. By comparison, REEs such as Nd is
difficult to secure stable, so the cost of recycling is high and the recycling business
has not progressed.
Therefore, recycling Nd from EVs and HEVs is crucial for achieving a sustainable industry. In order to realize sustainable recycling, the systems considering minimizing a transportation cost of a cyclical form supply chain and forecast of the
resources to collect needs to be designed. However, if the recycling systems are not
economically inefficient, the firm might not implement the project. Therefore, it is
important to evaluate the economic efficiency of supply chain systems. Furthermore,
since there is a possibility that regional trends may appear in the generation of waste,
it is necessary to introduce recycling equipment at a location close to the collected
waste. They focused on the parameter change when determining the product value,
but did not perform multi-period change and waste recovery prediction.
This study considers collecting rare earths from a next-generation car (EV and
HEVs), and reproducing, and aims at performing economic efficiency evaluation