Modelling Factory

Internationally, ambitious targets for reducing Green House Gases (GHG) emissions are setting challenges for complex systems engineering in the energy, manufacturing and transport sectors. For example, the EU has set a target of reducing GHG emissions 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030. Rechargeable car batteries play a vital role in reducing carbon footprint, but they contain several different types of heavy metal and toxic chemical wastes. Recycling and remanufacturing of the batteries is key for managing these environmental effects and coping with the limited availability of the rare earth metals needed to manufacture the batteries. However, the economic motivation to undertake recycling and remanufacturing activities is dependent on the supply of raw materials as well as political decisions such as taxation stemming from regulation; for example, the EU has passed the Battery Directive in 2006 aiming for a higher battery recycling rate. Thus, any scientifically sound approach to understand and control the complex system around rechargeable car batteries must encompass the recycling and remanufacturing processes, the supply chains and the relevant political measures that are taken to influence this system. The goal of this app is to develop a model for capturing the interactions between the elements of the system, so that it would be possible to investigate the system-wide impact of changing some parameter of the electric vehicle battery circular economy.