How to increase the recovery rate for waste cooking oil-to-biofuel conversion: A comparison of recycling modes in China and Japan

Improvement of recovery rates is crucial for the supply chain management of waste cooking oil-to-biofuel conversion. This paper constructs a dynamic game model between biofuel enterprises and recyclers to compare the recycling modes and recycling rate decisions of waste cooking oil-to-biofuel conversion in China and Japan. Results demonstrate that: (1) the recovery rate of Chinese mode with recyclers as price leader is not necessarily lower than that of Japanese mode theoretically, indicating that the collection-storage-transportation integrated mode in several cities led by Chinese government may not be the optimal choice. (2) The subsidies for recyclers have insignificant impact on recovery rate, while the subsidies for biofuel enterprises can significantly improve the recovery rate. (3) Decreasing difficulty coefficient and expanding the market size can greatly improve the recovery rate. Therefore, reforming the beneficiary of subsidies, improving the recycling infrastructure, implementing strict technical and administrative control and creative sales policy of biofuel finished products may benefit the recovery rate in China.