Determining advanced recycling fees and subsidies in "E-scrap" reverse supply chains

Primarily due to environmental concerns and legislative mandates, the disposition of end-of-life (EOL) electronics products has attracted much attention. Advanced recycling fees (ARFs) and government subsidies may play important roles in encouraging or curtailing the flows of recycled items. We present a Stackelberg-type model to determine ARFs and socially optimal subsidy fees in decentralized reverse supply chains where each entity independently acts according to its own interests. The model consists of one leader (the government) and two followers (a group of manufacturers, importers, and sellers (MISs) and a group of recyclers). To maximize social welfare, the government determines the ARFs paid by MIS and the subsidy fees for recyclers when MIS sells new products and recyclers process EOL products. We find that MIS and recyclers behave at the equilibrium status by choosing optimal selling quantity in the market and optimal reward money for customers bringing EOL products to recyclers. Under this approach the two fees achieve the maximum of social welfare at the equilibrium status, while both MIS and recyclers gain the maximum of profits. For comparative purposes, we also develop a conceptual model describing the current practice by which ARFs and the subsidy fees are determined on the basis of fund balance between revenues and costs along with recycling operations. We conclude that our results outperform current practice.     

Performance improvement potential of sensor embedded products in environmental supply chains

Environmental supply chain is a desirable alternative to traditional supply chain due to new and stricter environmental regulations by local governments and increasing consumer awareness towards environmental issues. The two most common types of environmental supply chains are reverse supply chains and closed-loop supply chains. In reverse or closed-loop supply chains, collected used products are subjected to one of four recovery options, viz., reuse, recycling, remanufacturing or disposal. Regardless of the chosen recovery option, all products are disassembled up to some level. However, there is a high level of uncertainty associated with the disassembly yield due to non-functional and/or missing components. Sensor embedded products (SEPs) is a viable approach to cope with this uncertainty since they involve sensors which can detect non-functional and/or missing components prior to disassembly. This study presents a quantitative assessment of the impact of SEPs on the various performance measures of a kanban-controlled disassembly line. First, separate design of experiments studies based on Orthogonal Arrays are carried out for conventional products and SEPs. Then, the results of paired t-tests comparing the two cases based on different performance measures are presented.     

Optimal production and pricing policy for a closed loop system

A closed loop system is investigated, in which the manufacturer has two channels to satisfy the demand: manufacturing brand-new products and remanufacturing returns into as-new products. Remanufactured products have no difference from brand-new products and can be sold in the same market at the same price. The demand is uncertain and sensitive to the selling price, while the return is also stochastic and sensitive to the acquisition price of used products. A mathematical model is developed to maximize the overall profit of the system by simultaneously determining the selling price, the production quantities for brand-new products and remanufactured products, and the acquisition price of used products. Some properties of the problem are analyzed, based on which a solution procedure is presented. Through a numerical example, the impacts of the uncertainties of both demand and return on the production plan, selling price, and the acquisition price of used products are analyzed.     

Location set covering for waste resource recycling centers in Taiwan

The efficiency of Taiwan's waste management and resource recycling systems has been well recognized in recent years, but the present model used to locate recycling centers and to assign collection depots to those centers continues to show low efficiency. To address this issue, the study herein suggests implementing a new location-planning and assignment model to reduce the number of existing recycling centers. Such a reduction would reduce the use of land resources. Moreover, the total transportation distance would decrease through the efficient assignment of collection depots to recycling centers. On the basis of results from previous studies, this study proposes a 2-stage location set covering problem-P-median integrated model that obtains exact solutions using heuristic algorithms on the basis of set operations. The results of numerical analyses show that the model introduced in this study is effective in solving the problems stated above as well as in improving the layout of Taiwan's existing recycling centers.     

Impact of closed-loop network configurations on carbon footprints: A case study in copiers

Growing concerns about the environment make a supply chains’ eco-footprint increasingly important, presuming that footprints are a more effective (policy) instrument than those currently in use. The eco-footprint comprises all kinds of environmental impact, but often is narrowed down to one aspect; e.g. the carbon footprint, material footprint, the water footprint, and so on. Although returns give rise to an additional goods flow from customers back to producers, it usually improves the eco-footprint due to the substitution effect. The reverse channel supplies high quality (recovered) products, components and materials to the forward channel thereby reducing the need for virgin sourcing and production. We refer to this as closed-loop recovery, as opposed to recovery for cascade markets which lacks substitution. To maximize substitution, the recovered items must re-enter the original supply chain. The feasibility of closed-loop recovery depends partly on the geographical proximity of forward and reverse facilities. We develop a decision framework for optimizing closed loop network configurations, i.e. the combined disposition and location–transport decision. We apply the framework to a single case study concerning one type of footprint (namely the carbon footprint) of a copier (closed-loop) supply chain. The main implication is that a regional network, with combined forward and reverse facilities per continent, proves most efficient and most robust in view of uncertain exogenous variables, but only when a full set of closed-loop options is available (including closed-loop recycling). As an embedded case, main contribution value of it lies in the discovery of a new phenomenon with generic implications; namely that not only the closed-loop supply chains footprint strongly depends on the substitution effect, but that in turn the feasibility of closed-loop recovery options depends heavily on the network design. From delineations of the study we derive issues for further research.     

TiO_2纳米管修饰电极处理反渗透浓水研究

研制了新型的TiO2纳米管修饰电极,应用于反渗透膜浓水的电化学氧化处理;利用扫描电镜和线性极化曲线对电极进行了表征;考察了电解时间、电流密度和pH值因素对电化学氧化处理反渗透膜浓水的影响;并分析了电极对反渗透浓水中各有机物组分的去除效果。实验结果表明TiO2纳米管修饰电极对反渗透浓水具有较高的电催化性能。     

声波反吹清灰对除尘效率的影响

声波反吹清灰会使除尘效率略有降低，已被实验和统计资料所证实。为减小其对除尘效率的影响，又要达到降低除尘器运行阻力的目的，必须选择合适的鸣喇叭次数。对于较难脱落的粉尘应选较多的鸣喇叭次数，而对较易脱落的粉尘则不需每次清灰都鸣喇叭，仅需偶而启动一次。本文通过实验证明，对本实验所用的除尘系统，每四次反吹清灰后鸣喇叭一次是合适的。     

Measuring the environmental impact of waste flow management in Brazilian apartment buildings

As biodegradable material represents approximately 70% of household waste in Brazil, any strategy to divert appreciable waste quantities from landfills of necessity has to include valorization and recycling of this material. A societal change of attitude is required to perceive this challenge. Experiments in an urban apartment building are described that produced this change of attitude with a success factor of 80%. Divided waste collection was implemented that separated at the source biodegradable from inert material. Correct collection, handling and display procedures were established. Composting of biodegradable material was carried out under the rooftop of the building as an alternative to using it as animal feed. Half of the inert material entered the reverse logistics chain and was also diverted from the landfill. Waste related material flow through the building is completely quantified, food intake and waste production are related, diversion of both biodegradable and inert waste components from the landfill is measured and the composting process is described. The landfill diversion stands at 61%, mass reduction through the composting process is 80% and matured compost is returned to residents for use in flower cages. The system has been operational for two years and stands out as a precedent in successful decentralized household waste management supported by material flow analysis. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

A hybrid approach using ISM and fuzzy TOPSIS for the selection of reverse logistics provider

Return of used products is becoming an important logistics activity due to government legislation and increasing awareness among the people to protect the environment and reduce waste. For industries, the management of return flow usually requires a specialized infrastructure with special information systems for tracking and dedicated equipment for the processing of returns. Therefore, industries are turning to third-party reverse logistics providers (3PRLPs). In this study, a multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) model in fuzzy environment is developed to guide the selection process of best 3PRLP. The interactions among the criteria are also analyzed before arriving at a decision for the selection of 3PRLP from among 15 alternatives. The analysis is done through Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Finally the effectiveness of the model is illustrated using a case study on battery manufacturing industry in India.     

Denitrification and microbial community in MBBR using A. donax as carbon source and biofilm carriers for reverse osmosis concentrate treatment

In this study,raw Arundo donax(A.donax)pieces were applied as carbon source and biofilm carriers for denitrification in a lab-scale moving bed biofilm reactor(MBBR)for the treatment of reverse osmosis concentrate gathered from local wastewater reuse plant.At stable phase(about 60 days),efficient denitrification performance was obtained with73.2%±19.5%NO_(3-)~-N average removal and 8.10±3.45 g N/(m~3·day)NO_(3-)~-N average volumetric removal rate.Mass balance analysis showed that 4.84 g A.donax was required to remove 1 g TN.Quantitative real-time PCR analysis results showed that the copy numbers of 16S r-RNA,narG,nirS,nosZ and anammox gene of carrier biofilm and suspended activated sludge in the declination phase(BF2 and AS2)were lower than those of samples in the stable phase(BF1 and AS1),and relatively higher copy numbers of nirS and nirK genes with lower abundance of narG and nosZ genes were observed.High-throughput sequencing analysis was conducted for BF2 and AS2,and similar dominant phyla and classes with different abundance were obtained.The class Gammaproteobacteria affiliated with the phylum Proteobacteria was the most dominant microbial community in both BF2(52.6%)and AS2(41.7%).The PICRUSt prediction results indicated that 33 predictive specific genes were related to denitrification process,and the relative abundance of 18 predictive specific genes in BF2 were higher than those in AS2.