The Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: Case Analysis and Main Drivers and Barriers to Its Implementation

Abstract

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.

Review on Energy Efficiency Progresses, Technologies and Strategies in the Ceramic Sector Focusing on Waste Heat Recovery

“…[ [161][162][163] In the following section, several energy efficiency technologies and strategies for the ceramic industry are presented, in three sub-sections: Equipment-Level Technologies and Strategies (Sub-Section 5.1), Plant-level Technologies and Strategies (Sub-Section 5.2) and Outer-Plant Systems (Sub-Section 5.3).…”

Shortcomings of Transforming a Local Circular Economy System through Industrial Symbiosis: A Case Study in Spanish SMEs

“…Table 2 compiles the characteristics of various cases of potential IS analysed in Spain. According to the table, it is clear that IS applications and analysis studies are not abundant in Spain, however, it is arguable to observe that there are still many untapped opportunities for developing new IS [83]. However, despite all the efforts made to implement IS initiatives at a global scale or at least tap its potential, IS is still a niche strategy that faces multiple challenges (e.g., regulatory, legislative barriers and financial hurdles, organisational issues) [84].…”

Eco-Industrial Parks: Experiences from Turkey

“…(IS) is the Kalundborg industrial cluster in Denmark and it has often been used as a reference case in literature. The Kalundborg network arose spontaneously from a self-organizing initiative between companies to address water scarcity and over the years has increased not only in terms of the number of symbioses but also the number of participants and remains a successful case to this day [2]. However, industrial symbiosis is not limited to the Kalundborg case.…”