Reverse Logistics Network Design for SF6 in Chinese Electric Power Corporations

Abstract

Greenhouse gas Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF 6 ) is widely used in Chinese electric power corporations. The corporations need to establish the reverse logistics network for SF 6 recovery to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For managing SF 6 waste and filling the research gap from theoretical and empirical research perspective in reverse logistics network design, we designed a comprehensive multi-layer reverse logistics network, including recycle points, recycle/distribution centers, and the SF 6 treatment centers. The network was mathematically modeled as a biobjective and multi-layer fuzzy mixed-integer nonlinear programming model under return quantity uncertainty to minimize the total cost and maximize the comprehensive evaluation values of the SF 6 treatment centers. With the cloud model, the method of fuzzy mathematical programming and the interactive non-inferior set estimation method, we obtained the optimal solution which determined transportation quantities of SF 6 and the location of facilities. The proposed model was validated by a real world case study, which indicates that the emissions of SF 6 will be reduced by 270.23 tons of gaseous SF 6 .