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Material flow of nickel in nickel metal hydride batteries waste and possible circularity improvement in Thailand

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Abstract

Hybrid vehicles are becoming more popular in Thailand. The battery that is used in hybrid vehicles is nickel metal hydride battery (Ni-MH). However, there is no management plan in dealing with Ni-MH batter wastes. It needs to be developed. This study applied material flow analysis (MFA) as a tool to trace nickel flow and stock in Ni-MH batteries supply chain in Thailand in order to analyze the current status of Ni-MH management and ways of improving circular economy. The authors calculated Material Circularity Indicator for a product (MCIp) and used it as an indicator of circular economy. In 2018, a total of 3414 tons of nickel in the used Ni-MH batteries were sent to Japan for recycling from Thailand. Because the efficiency of recycling was 95%, only 3243 tons of nickel were obtained in this process and sent to a battery pack manufacturing factory. The total quantity of batteries that was repacked was equivalent to 1921 tons of nickel a year. The domestic MCIp is 0.424, and the transboundary MCIp of nickel in NI-MH batteries in Thailand is 0.971, suggesting that even though looking at the global view, it has good circular system but for domestic view, Thailand is still far away from fully circularity. It would be better if Thailand had its recycling factory and did not have to ship materials to Japan for recycling. The shipment is costly and contributes to the greenhouse effect.

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Abbreviations

\({y}_{t}\) :

Actual value from the serial data at the time

\({\beta }_{0}\) :

Constant value of the information at the time

\({\beta }_{1}\) :

Value that the article has changed when time changes 1 unit of time

\({\widehat{y}}_{t}\) :

Estimated value at time

\(n\) :

Number of data collected

\(\overline{{y }_{t}}\) :

Average value of data collected

R 2 :

Coefficient of determination

\({MCI}_{P}\) :

Material Circularity Indicator of a product

\(LFI\) :

Linear Flow Index

\(V\) :

Virgin material (ton/year)

\(M\) :

Mass of the finished product (ton/year)

\({F}_{R}\) :

Fraction of feedstock derived from recycled sources

\({F}_{U}\) :

Fraction of feedstock derived from reused sources

\(W\) :

Overall amount of unrecoverable waste (ton/year)

\({W}_{0}\) :

Amount of waste going to landfill or energy recovery (ton/year)

\({C}_{R}\) :

Fraction of the mass of the product being collected for recycling at the end of its use phase

\({C}_{U}\) :

Fraction of mass of the product going into component reused

\({W}_{F}\) :

Quantity of waste generated to produce any recycled content used as feedstock (ton/year)

\({E}_{F}\) :

Efficiency of the recycling process used to produce the recycled feedstock

\({W}_{C}\) :

Quantity of waste generated in the recycling process (ton/year)

\({E}_{C}\) :

Efficiency of the recycling process used for recycling the product at the end of its use phase

\(F(X)\) :

Utility factor

\(X\) :

Utility X

\(L\) :

Life time of product (year)

\({L}_{av}\) :

Industrial average life time of product (year)

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge all the support of The Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Chaingmai University and Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ratchamangkala University Technology Lanna. We are grateful to Mr John Tucker, MA in Language Testing, University of Lancaster, for kind help in the English correction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Wanida Suriyanon

  2. Doctor of Engineering Program in Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Wanida Suriyanon

  3. Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Wanida Suriyanon & Napat Jakrawatana

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Chiangmai, 50200, Thailand

    Wanida Suriyanon & Nakorn Suriyanon

Authors
  1. Wanida Suriyanon
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  2. Napat Jakrawatana
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  3. Nakorn Suriyanon
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Correspondence to Napat Jakrawatana.

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Suriyanon, W., Jakrawatana, N. & Suriyanon, N. Material flow of nickel in nickel metal hydride batteries waste and possible circularity improvement in Thailand. Clean Techn Environ Policy 24, 887–899 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02229-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02229-2

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