Resource Management

&
Energy Systems

INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS

by
Ekanem Omomen Edet
(e.edet@tees.ac.uk)
 Linear Nature of Industrial Systems

Input Output
Industrial System
(Materials, (Waste)
Energy)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Grann, 1997

• The concept of Sustainable Development

has brought about many and differing
opinions as to what it means and how the
concept should be translated into specific
actions.

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Cyclical System in an Industrial
Ecosystem

Chicken Farm

Gas Tank
Households
Biogas
Digestor

Tea Processing

Fertiliser Market

Rice Paddies

Fish Farm
Fodder

Pig Farm

Industrial Food Web in Fushan Farm in China (Source: Graedel & Harper, 2004)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Biomimicry, Industrial Ecology &
Industrial Symbiosis

BIOMIMICRY

Industrial Product
Ecology Design

Industrial Closed
Symbiosis Loop
Business
Model
Renewable
Energy

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Biomimicry

A science that studies nature’s

models and then imitates or
takes inspiration from these
designs and processes to solve
human problems, e.g. a solar
cell inspired by a leaf

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Ecolgy

Is the study of the flows of

materials and energy in industrial
and consumer activities, of the
effects of these flows on the
environment, and of the influences
of economic, political, regulatory,
and social factors of the flow, use
and transformation of resources

Robert White, Former

President of the & Energy Systems
Resource Management Industrial Symbiosis
 Industrial Symbiosis

Is concept that engages

traditionally separate industries
in a collective approach to
competitive advantage involving
the physical exchange of
materials, energy, water, and/or
by-products
(Chertow, 2000)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Eco - Industrial Park (EIP)

Is a community of manufacturing
and service businesses seeking
enhanced environmental and
economic performance through
collaboration in managing
environmental and resource issues
including energy, water, and
materials.

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Eco - Industrial Park (EIP) cont’d

By working together, the

community of businesses seeks a
collective benefit that is greater
than the sum of the individual
benefits each company would
realise if it optimised its individual
performance only.

(Lowe, 1997)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 A ‘Mud Map’ of Eco-Corporation Options
(van Berkel, 2006)

Reliance on self-organisation
Potential Triple Bottom Line

Business Opportunities and

By – Product
Benefits

Exchanges

risks
Industrial Symbiosis Utility Sharing

Joint Management of
Park Facilities
Regional Resource Synergies

Eco - Industrial Parks

Effectiveness of current policy instruments

for spatial planning and environmental management

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Symbiosis – A History
Author / Title Year / Edition / Publisher
Profession / Number of pages
Nationality
Simmonds, Peter Waste Products and 1876 / 3RD edition / Hardwicke and
Lund / Specialised Undeveloped 491 pages Bogue (London)
journalist / Substances: A
Danish-born British Synopsis of
citizen Progress Made in
Their Economic
Utilisation During
the Last Quarter of
a century at Home
and Abroad
Koller, Theodor / The Utilisation of 1918 / 3RD revised D. Van Nostrand
Chemist / German Waste Products: A edition / 338 pages Company (New
Treatise on the (1ST German edition York)
Rational Utilisation, 1880; 3RD German
Recovery and edition 1921)
Treatment of Waste
Products of all Kinds

Kershaw, John The Recovery and 1928 / 1ST edition / Ernest Benn Limited
Baker Cannington / Use of Industrial 212 pages (London)
chemical
Main English engineer / and Other
language surveys Wastewaste recovery, 1876 – 1976 (Source: Desrochers,
on industrial
British
2005)
Lipsett, Charles
Resource S. / Industrial
Management WastesSystems
& Energy 1963 / 2ND revised Atlas Publishing
Industrial Co.
Symbiosis
 Industrial Symbiosis – A History
• 1971 – Forrester, J. “Principles of Systems, 1968
and World Dynamics”
• 1972 – Meadows, D. and Meadows, D. “Limits to
Growth”
• 1972 – Small Japanese group called “Industrial
Ecology Working Group” publish 300 page
document on Industrial Ecology
• 1973 – Same group publish another report with
case studies
• 1977 – The term “Industrial Ecosystem” was first
used in a paper presented by Preston Cloud at the
Annual Meeting of the German Geological
Association
• 1983 – Group of Belgians publish “L’Ecosysteme
Belgique: Essai d’Ecologie Industrielle”
• 1989 – Frosch, R. and Gallopoulous, N., write
“Strategies for Manufacturing”

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Types & Classifications of Industrial
Ecosystems

“Because of the resulting growing

ambiguity in the significance of
Eco-Industrial Park initiatives, a
typology is desirable for
entangling the confusion that is
introduced.”
- Lambert &
Boons, 2002

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Types & Classifications of Industrial
Ecosystems

• Allenby, 1992: Types I – III

• Chertow, 2000: Types 1 - 5

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Allenby, 1992
Type I
unlimited ecosystem unlimited
resources component waste

Type II
ecosystem
component

energy and limited

limited ecosystem ecosystem
component component waste
resources

Type III

ecosystem
component

energy
ecosystem ecosystem
component component

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Allenby, 1992 – Type I

• Is linear
• A large constant supply of raw
materials is required
• This system is unsustainable
Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis
 Allenby, 1992 – Type II

• Is partially cyclic
• Reduced materials and energy required
• Reduced waste produced
• Characterises most present day industrial systems

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Allenby, 1992 – Type III

• Is highly integrated and closed

• All by-products constantly used and recycled
• Represents a sustainable state
• Is the ideal goal of Industrial Ecology

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000

• Type 1 - Through waste exchanges

• Type 2 - Within a facility, firm or
organisation
• Type 3 - Among firms co-located in a
defined Eco Industrial Park
• Type 4 - Among local firms that aren’t co-
located
• Type 5 - Across firms organised virtually
across a broader region

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000 – Type 1

Waste Flow
Business Broker Manufacturer

• Waste only is exchanged

• A middleman / broker involved
• E.g. of Brokers: Age Concern,
NISP, municipalities, e.t.c

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000 – Type 2

• Synergies are between separate

arms of one company
• E.g. Imperial Chemical Industries
(ICI)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000 – Type 3

• Exchanges are between firms in

a defined Industrial Ecosystem
• Firms are more involved usually
sharing utilities as well as
general management of the
Industrial Ecosystem
• E.g. Montfort Boys Town
Integrated Biosystem in Fiji

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000 – Type 4

• Firms are local but not co-

located
• Takes advantage of structures
already in place within a
particular area
• Links existing businesses with
opportunities to link new ones

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Chertow, 2000 – Type 5

• Firms are not local

• Are mostly virtually linked
• Economic impact covers a wider
region
• Potential for by-product
exchanges greatly increased

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Ecosystem Principles for Industrial
Ecosystems
Solar energy

roundput diversity
Ecosystem – Environmental win

roundput diversity

Industrial Recycling
(roundput) system –
Use of Environmental win Outputs that
renewables by nature
respecting the tolerates and
renewal rate locality gradual change re-uses

locality gradual change

Waste heat (infrared

radiation to space

Ideal of the Perfect Industrial Ecosystem

(Source: Korhonen, 2000)
Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis
 Ecosystem Principles for Industrial
Ecosystems

• Roundput
• Locality
• Diversity
• Gradual change

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Roundput

The Carbon – Oxygen Cycle

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Roundput

Ecosystem Industrial System

Roundput Roundput
•Recycling of •Recycling of
matter matter
•Cascading of •Cascading of
energy energy

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Roundput

Promotes increased reliance on -

• Renewable resources
• Use of waste materials
• Use of waste energy
• Use of waste fuels

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Diversity
Ecosystem Industrial System

Diversity Diversity
•Biodiversity •Diversity in actors, in
•Diversity in species, interdependency and
organisms cooperation
•Diversity in •Diversity in industrial
interdependency and input, output
cooperation
•Diversity in information

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Diversity

Traditional inputs for power plants:

• Oil
• Coal

Recycled inputs for power plants:

• Peat
• Wood waste
• Forestry waste

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Locality
Ecosystem Industrial System

Locality Locality
•Utilising local •Utilising local
resources resources, wastes
•Respecting the local •Respecting the local
natural limiting factors natural limiting factors
•Cooperation between
•Local local actors
interdependency, co-
operation

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Locality

Benefits
• Reduced transportation
• Boost for local economy
• Enhanced cooperation with local
companies (Public vs Private;
Large corporations vs SMEs)

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Gradual Change
Ecosystem Industrial System

Gradual Change Gradual Change

•Evolution using solar •Using waste material
energy and energy, renewable
•Evolution through resources
•Gradual development
reproduction
of system diversity
•Cyclical time;
Seasonal time
•Slow time rates in the
development of system
diversity

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Symbiosis - Drivers and
Barriers

Drivers:
• Regulations on waste disposal
• Regional economic development
• Lack of natural resources
• Space limitations
• Increase in profit margins

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Symbiosis - Drivers and
Barriers
Sulphur Heat
Kemira
Acid Plant Statoil District
Refinery Heating
Water Gas

Cooling
Steam

Water
Gas
Gyproc
Plasterboard
Scrubber
Plant
Lake Sludge
Water Asnæs Power
Tissø
Station (coal-fired)
Heat Fish
Farming

Steam
Water
Cement;
Fly ash
roads
Farms Sludge (treated) Novo Nordisk
Pharmaceuticals

Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis Project

(Source: Chertow, 2000)
Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis
 Industrial Symbiosis - Drivers and
Barriers
Barriers
• Legislation
Article 1 (a) of the waste framework
directive states that:

“ ‘waste’ shall mean any substance

or object in the categories set out in
Annex I which the holder discards or
intends or is required to discard.”

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Symbiosis - Drivers and
Barriers

Forth Valley, Scotland

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Industrial Symbiosis - Examples

• Kalundborg, Denmark
• Styria, Austria
• Landskrona, Finland
• Forth Valley, Scotland
• Tees Valley Petrochemical
Complex, Teesside, UK
• Humberside, UK, etc.

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Reading List
• Ayres, R.U. (1994) Industrial Metabolism: Theory and Policy. The
Greening of Industrial Ecosystems. Washington DC: National Academy
Press. (pp 23 – 27).

• Chertow, M. (2000) Industrial symbiosis: Literature and taxonomy.

Annual Review of Energy and Environment 25.

• Desrochers, P. (2005) Learning from history or from nature or both?:

recycling networks and their metaphors in early industrialisation.
Progress in Industrial Ecology – An International Journal, 2 (1), 19 – 34

• Erkman, S. (1997) Industrial Ecology: an historical view. Journal of

Cleaner Production 5 (1-2), pp1 – 10

• Graedel, T.E. and Allenby, B.R. (1994) Industrial Ecology Prentice.

Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

• Harper, E. M. and Graedel, T. E. (2004). Industrial ecology: a

teenager's progress. Technology In Society, 26, 433 – 445.

• Korhonen, J. (2001) Four ecosystem principles for an industrial

ecosystem. Journal of Cleaner Production 9, 253 – 259

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis

 Reading List
• Korhonen, J. and Snakin, J. (2005) Analysing the evolution of
Industrial Ecosystems: Concepts and Application. Ecological
Economics 52 (2005) 169 – 186

• Lowe, A.E. and Evans, L.K. (1995) Industrial Ecology and

Industrial Ecosystems. J. Cleaner Prod., Vol. 3 No 1-2, pp 47 –
53, 1995

• Schwarz, E.J. and Steininger, K.W. (1997) Implementing

Nature’s Lesson: The Industrial Recycling Network Enhancing
Regional Development. J. Cleaner Prod., Vol. 5 No 1-2, pp 47 –
56, 1997

• Van Berkel, R. (2006) Regional Resource Synergies for

Sustainable Development in Heavy Industrial Areas: An
Overview of Opportunities and Experiences. Curtin University of
Technology
http://www.c4cs.curtin.edu.au/resources/publications/2006/arc_synerg

Resource Management & Energy Systems Industrial Symbiosis