KEYWORDS: End-of-Life Vehicles Management, Profiling, Life Cycle Assessment, Lithium-ion Battery Recycling, Network Design and Optimization

In India, End-of-life Vehicles (ELVs) are managed in an unstructured and inefficient manner due to lack of stringent regulations causing damaging effects to the environment. The information seems to be lacking in the literature pertaining to how much of materials in a car is recycled and recovered. Also, there is a need to quantify the environmental impact of ELV management processes since it is performed using rudimentary methods by the unorganized recyclers in India. In this study, we have performed profiling of the passenger car to quantify value in terms of recycling and net recovery rates. We then performed Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) of ELV handling processes namely dismantling, recycling and engine remanufacturing that involves valuable components of the car. Further the reverse supply chain analysis, considering recycling process predominantely is restricted to Lithium-ion Batteries (LIBs) since electric vehicles are going to be increasingly used in future. Two processes – pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes are predominantly used for LIB recycling. The disposal of LIBs has become a growing concern since it causes more pollution to the environment due to the release of toxic by-products. Also, no infrastructure is available in India to recycle LIBs. Therefore, there is a need to quantify the environmental impact due to LIB recycling and design network to setup LIB collection and recycling centres considering economic and environmental impact. The following are the research objectives:
1. To perform the profiling of the passenger car to understand the parts that can be recycled, calculate recycling and net recovery rates in terms of mass percentage.

2. To perform LCA for the ELV handling processes where valuable components of the car are involved namely dismantling, recycling and engine remanufacturing.

3. To compare hydrometallurgical and hybrid (pyrometallurgy followed by hydrometallurgy) recycling processes for LIBs and determine the process that causes minimum impact to the environment through LCA.

4. To propose a model for the design of lithium-ion battery recycling network in Chennai by simultaneously minimizing cost and environmental impact.

In the profiling analysis, case study based interview method was used among the recycling experts from an automotive research centre and three unorganized recyclers in Chennai to collect information on the Indian perception of recyclable, hazardous materials, efforts taken towards recycling, recovery and challenges in ELV management. Finally, the suggestion was that since Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is currently unviable in India (Automotive Industry Standard, 2015), the OEMs can collaborate with unorganized recyclers to recycle and recover materials in an environment friendly manner till regulations for ELV management are implemented in practice. Using this study, LCA of ELV management processes was performed and found that recycling causes the maximum impact (more than two-thirds) compared to dismantling and engine remanufacturing. Steel causes maximum impact in dismantling and recycling. Cast aluminium causes maximum impact in engine remanufacturing.
Lastly, the environmental impact of hybrid and hydrometallurgical processes of recycling of LIBs were found to be of the same order through LCA. Cathode, anode, foil cause the most impact and the impact due to separator, cell case, cables, leaching agent, slag-forming agent and reducing agent were minimum. This was followed by the development of network optimization model to determine the location of LIB collection and recycling centres in Chennai considering multi-objective problem of minimizing cost and environmental impact. Further, sensitivity analysis was also performed and found that opening collection or recycling centres at certain zones would increase the environmental impact to a large extent.