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.
Highlights
In recent years, resource-intensive use, rising industrialisation and urbanisation, modern lifestyles, energy-intensive use, and land use patterns have led to increased greenhouse gas emissions, with negative consequences for the environment and the population [1,2,3]
This cooperation has been referred to in several publications as Industrial and Urban Symbiosis and takes place when waste generated in an urban area is used as a raw material or energy source in industry or when industries provide urban areas with waste heat resulting from their operation [12,13]
The publications that resulted fromOthfisthieni5ti9a1l caorltlieccletisononwienrde usustbrmialittseydmtboioassicsreselneicntgedpraoncdesasninaloyrsdederatoccsoerldeicntgthteomthoestsreelleecvtiaonnt ocrniteesrfiaor dtheefinsteuddyi.nTiStleecst,iokneyw2,or1d0s3, arnedlaatbedstratoctspwoteernetriaeladi,nwduitshtrtihael asiymmobfiosesilse,ctiancgcoaurntitcilnegs thfoart faopcpursoexdimmaatienllyy1o7r%sigonf itfihceatnottlayl.oAn litnhdouusgtrhiatlhseysme abritoiscilse.sIof nthienrdeuwsterriealansyymdboiuobstis awbeoruetpthuebliinschleudsiofrnomof t1h9e95arotnicwleas,rdw,eitawnalsyosendlythaerofurenqdu2e0n0c1y twhiatthawrthicilcehs tohne pkoeytewnotiradlsinadpupsetarrieadl styhmrobuigohsiosubtetghaenptuobalipcpateiaorn, asndilluthsetracotendteixntFiinguwrehi2c.h they were inserted in order to verify whether industrial symbiosis was the focus of the study or whether it only appeared as an example or to contextualise other concepts
Summary
Resource-intensive use, rising industrialisation and urbanisation, modern lifestyles, energy-intensive use, and land use patterns have led to increased greenhouse gas emissions, with negative consequences for the environment and the population [1,2,3]. There are factors that are often referred to as drivers for the creation and development of industrial symbiosis networks, such as the need to reduce raw material and waste disposal costs and the potential generation of revenue [18,34,49,50,51] In addition to these aspects, existing policies and legislation have been identified as influencing industrial symbiosis practices. It aims to identify and discuss the main drivers and barriers to the implementation of industrial symbiosis, as well as the various strategies for overcoming these barriers To this end, the various cases are characterised and analysed by geographical location, type of economic activity, type of waste/by-product exchange, infrastructure sharing, and joint provision of services.
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