Targeting material exchanges in industrial symbiosis networks

Abstract

Industrial symbiosis plays an important role in the process industry, where an effective management of resources can bring both economic and environmental benefits. Traditionally, the design and extension of eco-industrial parks has been mainly based on intuition and experience; yet, the number of actors involved, the number of flows to manage and the different nature of the materials and energy exchanged lead to complex problems that can benefit from the use of systematic decision-making methods. The aim of this contribution is to produce useful tools to identify the most favourable synergies and transformations for a process network. The proposed model has been tested on a case study that consists of an ethylene and chlorine based eco-industrial park. Results confirm the capabilities of the proposed targeting methodology to match sources and sinks of resources.