Industrial symbiosis (IS) has proven to bring collective benefits to multiple stakeholders by minimising underutilised resources, sharing knowledge and improving business and technical processes. In Europe alone, over €130 million have been invested since 2006 in research projects that enable IS by developing a methodology, tool, software, platform or network that facilitates the uptake of IS by different economic actors. This paper discusses and assesses information technology (IT) developments for supporting IS in Europe, following the five-stage methodology of Grant et al. (2010). It provides guidance to the applicants and reviewers of publicly funded research projects by listing the developments and gaps in the newly developed IT tools for IS. Content analysis of publicly available information on 20 IS supporting IT tools reveals a strong focus on synergy identification but a lack of support for the implementation stage of IS. The paper indicates that a vast quantity of IT tools and knowledge is created during the IT tool development stage and newer IT tools now also include implicit information for identifying IS. It was found that successfully operational IT tools are either part of a national or local IS programme or owned by a private company. The paper ends with the recommendation that better mechanisms are needed to ensure that publicly funded IS-supporting IT tools successfully reach the market.

In the race against climate change, aiming for low-carbon competitiveness, Flanders has initiated a carbon neutrality strategy on industrial parks, building towards energy efficient buildings and processes, acting as a stimulus for the production and consumption of green electricity. However, premises and internal process optimisation on industrial parks is not considered sufficient to limit greenhouse emissions in Flanders. Structural transition is called for, aiming for industrial clustering and energy autonomy based on renewables. Therefore, the concept of industrial symbiosis is analysed to determine how it could improve the energy-related carbon management on industrial parks. This article explores the literature on industrial symbiosis and eco-industrial parks searching for specific energy strategies, and is illustrated with case studies. Energy management on industrial parks can be integrated in the entire development process and park management. Maximising efficiency is a promising local optimisation issue, in which business should be engaged, stimulated and facilitated. By clustering buildings and processes, by energy exchange, collective production and joint contracting of energy services, local synergies can be intensified. Yet, uncertainty and variability in time of energy consumption can keep developers from tailoring industrial park design and utilities. Instead flexibility and solidity could be gained, and the offer of business space could be diversified, supported by a persevering issuing procedure to join similar and matching energy profiles. Energy management on industrial parks in Flanders has only recently started but is expected to gain professionalism. However further research is needed on this flexible design and thermal planning.

For the last 20 years, the field of industrial symbiosis (IS) has raised interest among academics and industries. IS consists of dissimilar entities sharing and valorising underutilised resources such as materials, energy, information, services, or technologies in the view of increasing the industrial system’s circularity. Despite the benefits brought by IS, though, barriers hindering the full dissemination of IS remain. This paper presents a methodology developed in the framework of the H2020 European project EPOS that aims at removing some of the obstacles to the implementation of IS. The method follows a multidisciplinary approach that intents to trigger the interest of industry decision-makers and initiate efforts to optimise the use of energy and material resources through symbiosis. It is applied to an industrial cluster located in the Humber region of UK. The case study shows how the approach helped to identify several IS opportunities, how one particular high-potential symbiosis was further assessed, and how it led to the creation of a business case. It was estimated that the identified symbiosis could bring substantial economic (+2000 k€ pa), environmental (−4000 t of CO2 eq. pa) and social (+7 years of healthy life) gains to the region.

To mitigate climate destabilisation, human-induced greenhouse gas emissions urgently need to be curbed. A major share of these emissions originates from the industry and energy sectors. Hence, a low carbon shift in industrial and business park energy systems is called for. Low carbon business parks minimise energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by maximal exploitation of local renewable energy production, enhanced energy efficiency, and inter-firm heat exchange, combined in a collective energy system. The holistic approach of techno-economic energy models facilitates the design of such systems, while yielding an optimal trade-off between energetic, economic and environmental performances. However, no models custom-tailored for industrial park energy systems are detected in literature. In this paper, existing energy model classifications are scanned for adequate model characteristics and accordingly, a confined number of models are selected and described. Subsequently, a practical typology is proposed, existing of energy system evolution, optimisation, simulation, accounting and integration models, and key model features are compared. Finally, important features for a business park energy model are identified. IntroductionFossil fuel based energy generation in the manufacturing industry and the sector's consumption of externally produced electricity and heat, are responsible for about 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions on European level [1]. Therefore, a low carbon shift in the energy system of industrial parks must be initiated. Low carbon business parks envision a collective energy system that employs energy efficient technologies, maximises the integration of local renewable energy sources and enables heat exchange between companies [2]. Technoeconomic energy models provide a holistic approach towards the configuration and operation of such systems, and facilitate the optimal trade-off between energetic, economic and environmental performances. To our knowledge, there is no energy model available that has been custom tailored for industrial parks and therefore, the development of such a model by adapting an existing model or by developing a new one is of high priority.Starting from the viewpoint of low carbon business park energy systems, this paper attempts to unravel the plethora of energy models, proposes a pragmatic model categorisation and identifies key model features. Section 2 describes the configuration of a business park energy system and its components and assesses the need for a holistic modelling approach. In section 3, several existing classifications of techno-economic energy models are screened for appropriate model features and based thereon a new classification is proposed. Its model categories are presented and exemplified throughout sections 4 to 9. Section 10 provides a clear comparison between these model types per key characteristic. In section 11, features for efficiently modelling business park energy systems are distilled. Finally, section 13 provides a summary.