Industrial symbiosis for increasing the efficiency in the use of materials and energy

Abstract

In industrial ecosystems efficiency and optimization of resources and energy, waste minimization and enhancement of the products represent an important strategy in a perspective of circular economy. From this comes the concept of industrial metabolism, intended as the whole process that includes resource fluxes through the industrial systems, their transformation and finally their disposal in minimum percentage, as waste. Currently Industrial Ecology (EI) includes all those multidisciplinary contributions for the eco-optimization of the relationship between industry and the environment as a further step forward in the concept of sustainable development. The industrial symbiosis, which represents one of the main features of industrial ecology, aims to increase the efficiency in the use of materials and energy, through the collaborations between companies that in the traditional linear metabolism of the industrial activities do not cooperate. These interconnected entities engender relations of symbiosis, e.g. integrated industrial complexes, in which the waste of some companies become raw materials for others, with a significant increase in the eco-efficiency of the system. Some eco-industrial parks are structured as networks of companies that work together to efficiently share resources (raw materials, water, energy, know-how, infrastructure and natural habitat) and reduce costs, especially in waste management. Through mutual collaboration, communities of companies have achieved collective economic, social and environmental benefits with economies of scale more significant than individual benefits deriving from improvements of individual performances.