Industrial symbiosis[1] a subset of
industrial ecology. It describes how a network of diverse organizations can foster eco-innovation and long-term culture change, create and share mutually profitable transactions—and improve business and technical processes.
Although geographic proximity is often associated with industrial symbiosis, it is neither necessary nor sufficient—nor is a singular focus on physical resource exchange. Strategic planning is required to optimize the synergies of co-location. In practice, using industrial symbiosis as an approach to commercial operations—using, recovering and redirecting resources for reuse—results in resources remaining in productive use in the economy for longer. This in turn creates business opportunities, reduces demands on the earth's
resources, and provides a stepping-stone towards creating a
circular economy.[2]
Industrial symbiosis is a subset of
industrial ecology, with a particular focus on material and energy exchange. Industrial ecology is a relatively new field that is based on a natural paradigm, claiming that an
industrial ecosystem may behave in a similar way to the natural
ecosystem wherein everything gets recycled, albeit the simplicity and applicability of this paradigm has been questioned.[3]
Eco-industrial network (no strict requirement of geographical proximity)
Virtual eco-industrial network (networks spread in large areas e.g. regional network)
Networked Eco-industrial System (macro level developments with links across regions)[citation needed]
Industrial symbiosis engages traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to
competitive advantage involving physical exchange of materials, energy,[4] water,[5] and/or by-products.[6] The keys to industrial symbiosis are
collaboration and the
synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity".[7] Notably, this definition and the stated key aspects of industrial symbiosis, i.e., the role of collaboration and geographic proximity, in its variety of forms, has been explored and empirically tested in the UK through the research and published activities of the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme.[8][9][10]
Industrial symbiosis systems collectively optimize material and energy use at efficiencies beyond those achievable by any individual process alone. IS systems such as the web of materials and energy exchanges among companies in
Kalundborg, Denmark have spontaneously evolved from a series of micro innovations over a long time scale;[11] however, the engineered design and implementation of such systems from a macro planner's perspective, on a relatively short time scale, proves challenging.
Often, access to information on available by-products is difficult to obtain.[12] These by-products are considered
waste and typically not traded or listed on any type of exchange. Only a small group of specialized waste marketplaces addresses this particular kind of waste trading.[13]
Example
Recent work reviewed government policies necessary to construct a multi-gigaWatt
photovoltaic factory and complementary policies to protect existing solar companies are outlined and the technical requirements for a symbiotic industrial system are explored to increase the manufacturing efficiency while improving the environmental impact of
solar photovoltaic cells. The results of the analysis show that an eight-factory industrial symbiotic system can be viewed as a medium-term investment by any government, which will not only obtain direct financial return, but also an improved global environment.[14]
This is because synergies have been identified for co-locating glass manufacturing and photovoltaic manufacturing.[15]
The
waste heat from glass manufacturing can be used in industrial-sized
greenhouses for
food production.[16] Even within the PV plant itself a secondary chemical recycling plant can reduce environmental impact while improving economic performance for the group of manufacturing facilities.[17]
In DCM Shriram consolidated limited (
Kota unit) produces
caustic soda,
calcium carbide,
cement and
PVC resins.
Chlorine and
hydrogen are obtained as by-products from caustic soda production, while calcium carbide produced is partly sold and partly is treated with water to form
slurry(aqueous solution of
calcium hydroxide) and
ethylene. The chlorine and ethylene produced are utilised to form
PVC compounds, while the slurry is consumed for
cement production by
wet process.
Hydrochloric acid is prepared by direct synthesis where the pure chlorine gas can be combined with hydrogen to produce hydrogen chloride in the presence of UV light.[18]
^Ehrenfeld, John; Gertler, Nicholas (December 1997). "Industrial Ecology in Practice: The Evolution of Interdependence at Kalundborg". Journal of Industrial Ecology. 1 (1): 67–79.
doi:
10.1162/jiec.1997.1.1.67.
S2CID8076213.
^van Capelleveen, Guido; Amrit, Chintan; Yazan, Devrim Murat (2018). Otjacques, Benoît; Hitzelberger, Patrik; Naumann, Stefan; Wohlgemuth, Volker (eds.). "A Literature Survey of Information Systems Facilitating the Identification of Industrial Symbiosis". From Science to Society. Progress in IS. Cham: Springer International Publishing: 155–169.
doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-65687-8_14.
ISBN978-3-319-65687-8.
^Nosrat, Amir H.; Jeswiet, Jack; Pearce, Joshua M. (2009). "Cleaner production via industrial symbiosis in glass and largescale solar photovoltaic manufacturing". 2009 IEEE Toronto International Conference Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH). pp. 967–970.
doi:
10.1109/TIC-STH.2009.5444358.
ISBN978-1-4244-3877-8.
S2CID34736473.