Sustainability-based Optimization Criteria for Industrial Symbiosis: The Symbioptima Case

Abstract

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals require industrial infrastructures to provide a positive impact on society by reducing waste generation and resource consumption. The enhancement and optimization of symbiotic aspects in industry clusters can support the achievement of such goals. The present paper illustrates a new quantification methodology to foster the implementation of industrial symbiosis within existing industry clusters. A Java tool has been developed to track and optimize material and energy flows within different symbiosis scenarios. The quantitative assessment is focused on identifying environmental, social and cost gains for specific Key Performance Indicators, considering a comprehensive Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) perspective. Furthermore, multi-criteria optimization allows to identify heuristic solutions for symbiosis scenarios. The tool has been implemented with reference to a symbiosis case from the Steel Sector. Preliminary results evidence that industrial symbiosis and industrial sustainability are complementary but different areas. Moreover, concurrent applications of such paradigms introduce a number of new challenges and operational managerial issues to be addressed.