Research on recycling benefits of spent lithium batteries with parameter uncertain: Application to adjust incentive policy

Abstract

The sales of new energy vehicles continue to grow, the problem of recycling spent lithium battery has become the focus. In this work, a cost-income model for recycling spent lithium batteries is established considering the cascade utilization and valuable metal extraction. The cost model is divided into three stages: initial investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, and valued metal extraction cost. The income indicators includes government subsidies and residual value. There is uncertainty in the recycling process of spent lithium batteries due to the volatile market price, immature recycling technology and large differences in regional systems. In order to solve the uncertainty of recycling spent lithium battery, the concept and algorithm of gray number are introduced in this work to calculate the economic benefits. The construction of the economic benefit model of the spent lithium battery can help investors to make decisions and help the government to adjust the incentive policy to ensure the economic benefit of the spent lithium battery recycling system.