The emergence of environmental and sustainability regulations as well as the limited availability of fossil fuels have brought the notion of gradually substituting petroleum products with biofuels ...into the limelight. The commercialization and large-scale adoption of cellulosic biofuel (second-generation biofuel) and microalgae biofuel (third-generation biofuel) have been hampered by their poor economic performance. Although the production wastes of biofuel can be utilized as input materials to enhance resource utilization efficiency, environmental sustainability and economic viability in each generation, rarely existing research has been conducted on the integration between these two generations. To fill this research gap, a novel industrial symbiosis (IS) design for the co-production of second- and third-generation biofuels is proposed in this paper. The material flow, energy flow, cost performance, and environmental impact models are established considering the interactions of stakeholders in the IS system. Four scenarios, consisting of the baseline case without IS and three IS cases with different microalgae species, are comprehensively compared in terms of various economic and sustainability performance indicators. Compared to the baseline case, the results reveal that the synergies in the bioenergy IS system render an annual manufacturing cost reduction of >10% in all IS scenarios. It is also discovered that the symbiotic design can lead to a 36% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a 9.4% decrease in eutrophication potential (EP), and a 7.5% reduction in acidification potential (AP) when adopting the same species of microalgae. The synergies among the bioenergy IS system stakeholders are proved to be viable and beneficial to enhance the economic viability and environmental sustainability.
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•A novel cellulosic- and microalgae-biofuel industrial symbiosis (IS) design is proposed.•The material flows, costs, and environmental impacts are modeled mathematically.•Three IS scenarios with different microalgae species outperforms the non-IS scenario.•IS scenario with Nannochloropsis exhibits the best economic performance with 10.8% cost reduction.•IS scenario with Scenedesmus shows the most significant positive environmental impact.
The challenges of balancing industrial development, environmental and human health, and economic growth in China and elsewhere in the world are drivers for recent resource use and low-carbon ...development strategies that include the application of the circular economy (CE) concept. A central theme of the CE concept is the valuation of materials within a closed-looped system with the aim to allow for natural resource use while reducing pollution or avoiding resource constraints and sustaining economic growth. The objectives of this study are (1) to review the history of the CE concept to provide a context for (2) a critical examination of how it is applied currently. Thematic categories are used to organize the literature review results including policy instruments and approaches; value chains, material flows, and products; and technology, organizational, and social innovation. The literature review illustrates the variability in CE project success and failure over time and by region. CE successes, key challenges, and research gaps are identified. The literature review results provide useful information for researchers as well as multi-stakeholder groups who seek to define the CE concept in practical terms, and to consider potential challenges and opportunities it presents when implemented.
Industrial symbiosis, which is characterised mainly by the reuse of waste from one company as raw material by another, has been applied worldwide with recognised environmental, economic, and social ...benefits. However, the potential for industrial symbiosis is not exhausted in existing cases, and there is still a wide range of opportunities for its application. Through a comprehensive literature review, this article aims to compile and analyse studies that focus on potential industrial symbiosis in real contexts, to highlight the margin of optimisation that is not being used. The cases reported in the publications identified here were characterised and analysed according to geographic location, type of economic activity, waste/by-products, main benefits, and the methods employed in the studies. From this analysis, we conclude that there is great potential for applications involving industrial symbiosis throughout the world, and especially in Europe, corresponding to 53% of the total cases analysed. Manufacturing stood out as the sector with the highest potential for establishing symbiosis relationships, and the most common types of waste streams in potential networks were organic, plastic and rubber, wood, and metallic materials. This article also discusses the main drivers and barriers to realising the potential of industrial symbiosis. The diversity of industries, geographical proximity, facilitating entities and legislation, plans, and policies are shown to be the main drivers.
Industrial symbiosis, which allows entities and companies that traditionally be separated, to cooperate among them in the sharing of resources, contributes to the increase of sustainability with ...environmental, economic and social benefits. Examples of industrial symbiosis have grown over the years with increasing geographic dispersion. Thus, through a comprehensive review of previous studies, this work aims to trace the trend of industrial symbiosis research and to map the existing case studies around the world, with a critical analysis of its impact. The analysis of the 584 selected publications allowed tracing the evolution of these according to their content and the type of article, as well as its distribution by journals. Based on the literature review, the main lines for research in industrial symbiosis are assessed, as well as an updated study of the published case studies is provided with emphasis on the location, type of industry and employed methodologies. Several challenges are then identified for future research. The results reveal the number of articles on industrial symbiosis has greatly increased since 2007 and China is the country with the largest number of publications and cases of industrial symbiosis, followed by the United States. The methods for quantifying impacts and analysing industrial symbiosis networks were the most widely used. The analysis of the published case studies allowed an overview of the industrial symbiosis in the world and showed that the potential for application is enormous, both in developed countries and in countries with developing economies, and although the most present economic activities in the synergies are associated with the manufacturing sector, the possibilities of industrial symbiosis are not restricted to these activities nor to the number of entities involved. The symbioses between industry and the surrounding community also have great potential for development with numerous advantages for both parties.
Cross-industry networks of multiple supply chains have evolved in the circular economy model using approaches such as industrial and urban symbiosis. However, the implementation of such sustainable ...industrial networks with matrix-like structures is not straightforward. Despite the clear benefits of big data-driven industrial symbiosis, corporates have noted that social, environmental and economic perspectives are also highly appreciated in the cross-industry networks. Moreover, gaps remain in operational data-driven and recycle, reduce and reuse optimization solutions, which may be the key components of industrial symbiosis practices.
Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) cultivate symbiotic relationships by developing waste and by-product networks among companies in a mutual and systematic manner. In the past, the development of ...self-organized symbioses has been demonstrated to be more successful and beneficial. However, in the absence of effective communication channels among companies, efforts to transform the conventional industrial complexes into EIPs need to stimulate the development of symbioses with a systematic design approach. To develop and implement such symbioses (described as ‘designed’ networks), the Ulsan EIP center devised a ‘research and development into business’ (R&DB) framework for the effective expansion of symbioses in the industrial complexes. Based on this framework, the Ulsan EIP center has so far facilitated forty symbioses, out of which thirteen networks are currently in operation, twenty are under negotiation and/or design, and seven are under feasibility investigation/evaluation. This paper might serve as an “out of experience” guideline for other worldwide EIP initiatives, wherein we demonstrate the viability of ‘designed’ symbiosis networks using policy instruments like national EIP programs, the presence of facilitators such as an EIP center, and an enabling framework such as the R&DB framework that are observed to be critical factors for retro-fitting the conventional industrial complexes into EIPs.
► ‘Self-organized’ symbiosis networks may be insufficient for EIP transition. ► Research and development (R&DB) framework for ‘designed’ industrial symbiosis networks is proposed. ► ‘Designed’ industrial symbiosis networks are viable. ► Policy instrument, facilitator and enabling framework accelerate EIP transition.
Circular Economy (CE) currently represents a viable option for countries, governments, academia and society to transform the linear and semi-circular materials and energy flows into circular flows ...and obtain better sustainable benefits. In this sense, Industrial Ecology (IE) with its tools can assist in the transition to CE. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to present the theoretical contribution of IE to CE. The methodology used was based on bibliometric analysis in the international context. With regard to the bibliometric analyses, we have identified that the evolution of CE would not be possible without the existence of IE concepts and tools, especially with tools such as Industrial Symbiosis (IS) and Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs). Furthermore, three levels of IE contribution to CE were identified, such as: conceptual, technical and policy aspects. Finally, new CE based researches from an IE perspective with bibliometric analysis and with co-citation networks are possible, including, solid waste management and policies.
Nowadays, reducing the environmental impact of biorefinery is a common concern of scholars. life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely used method to evaluate the environmental impact of biorefinery. ...Considering the lack of a latest review on the progress and existing problems related to biorefinery based on LCA studies, this paper carried out a systematic review of the evaluation of environmental impact of biorefinery based on LCA, and proposed the development strategies for waste biorefineries by targeting literature on LCA methods. After finding out the imperfections existing in the current researches, the paper then constructed a comprehensive and systematic biorefinery framework with a standard LCA employed as a reference template for following researches. 92 peer-reviewed articles published in Web of Science, Springer and Scopus from 2015 to 2019 with LCA and biorefinery as the keywords were considered. The key findings are as follows: (1) Agricultural waste and industrial residues are the top two feedstocks widely employed, accounting for 32.61% and 29.35% respectively; (2) the primary data is scarce. The foreground data of LCA is 56.52% from the researches of other scholars; (3) the LCA methods are not standardized. 30.26% and 18.42% have unclear system boundaries and functional units; and (4) there is a lack of estimating the influences of various uncontrollable external factors in the biorefinery process. Furthermore, the review highlighted and discussed the defects of biorefineries, a robust LCA template that can be used for evaluating the environmental impact of biorefinery was constructed, taking algae biorefinery as an example.
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•92 research articles on LCA and biorefinery are reviewed to update the latest progress.•Major issues on employing life cycle assessment for facilitating sustainable biorefinery are uncovered.•The environmental impacts of widely used biorefinery feedstocks and technologies are compared.•Recommendations for future biorefinery-driven LCA are proposed from five aspects.•A demonstration model on the biorefineries with LCA was exemplified.
Industrial Symbiosis (IS) can reduce industrial waste and the need for virgin material extraction by utilizing waste generated by one industry as a raw material for another. Input-output matching is ...a commonly used approach for identifying potential IS partnerships. Usually, to collect necessary data for input-output matching, companies are asked to participate in workshops or surveys. However, such activities can be costly and time consuming. Additionally, companies may be unwilling to participate due to issues around data confidentiality. This article aims to show how these barriers can be overcome by a new method for identification of IS opportunities, which does not require companies to be surveyed. The developed matching approach uses statistical datasets and IS databases. The underlying principle is to use known IS partnerships and databases developed by the authors containing data on typical waste generation and resource use by industries, to expand and link other potential donors and receivers. This allows the expansion of one IS example into multiple potential relationships. The method promotes Circular Economy development by identifying more opportunities to utilize more secondary resources through connecting previously unrelated industry sectors. The method has been tested in Sweden, where the goal was to identify potential partnerships between industries that generate sawdust as a waste product and companies that could utilize sawdust in their industrial processes. Out of 6,726,534 potential symbiotic links identified by the method, 159,630 were shortlisted using prioritization criteria reflecting an increased likelihood of symbiosis.
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