Energy-intensive Industrial Sectors Research Articles

Energy Price Distortions and Urban Carbon Emission Efficiency: Evidence from China’s Energy-Intensive Sectors

With a primary focus of achieving carbon neutrality, the energy-intensive industrial sectors (EIIs) contribute to more than half of China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. During the process of China’s rapid economic development, distorted energy prices gradually became the main obstacle to energy conservation and emission reductions in the EIIs. Therefore, this study focused on determining the mechanisms affecting the energy price distortions of carbon emission efficiency (CEE) in China’s EIIs. Based on a stochastic frontier analysis, the changing trend of CEE in China’s EIIs was evaluated. The channels impacting the energy price distortions of CEE were further analyzed by a mediating effect and moderated mediating effect model. The main contributions and findings include the following: energy price distortions have a significant negative impact on CEE by suppressing technological innovations and hindering the restructuring of energy consumption; governmental environmental regulatory policies mitigate their suppressing effect on technological innovations and reduce the preventing effect by improving the energy consumption structure. The results suggest that market-based price reforms and moderate environmental regulation by the government could help to improve CEE in China’s EIIs. These findings are of great significance for promoting the sustainable development of the energy-intensive industrial sectors and achieving carbon neutrality.

Techno-economic implications of three phase fluidized bed absorption column applied to power generation for an intensified carbon capture process

This study addresses the pressing need to mitigate anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from energy-intensive industrial sectors to achieve climate neutrality goals. The focus of this paper is on evaluating the industrial feasibility of a novel three-phase gas-solid-liquid fluidized bed absorption column using mono-ethanol-amine for carbon capture and comparing it with conventional packed-bed technology. The findings show that the fluidized bed configuration reduces capital costs of the absorber by 40 % and of the carbon capture unit by 15 % compared to the packed-bed technology, leading to decreased electricity costs when used as additional unit for a 1000 MW power plant. The proposed mathematical model incorporates key factors such as hydrodynamics, mass transfer, and chemical reactions, accurately describing the intensified carbon dioxide absorption process. This intensified system enhances the transferred carbon dioxide flowrate between phases, increasing overall decarbonization capacity while reducing capital and operational costs, offering a promising solution for industrial carbon capture.

Highly efficient hydrogenation of carbonate to methanol for boosting CO2 mitigation

The massive CO2 emissions from the energy-intensive industrial sectors can trace to the thermal decomposition of raw mineral carbonates during high-temperature manufactories. To mitigate CO2 emissions, we propose a novel strategy of carbonate-to-methanol through a highly efficient hydrogenation, where the carbon in mineral magnesite is used as a precious resource to unleash its tremendous value. More significantly, we break the trade-off between the excessive H2 for the complete magnesite conversion and the utilization efficiency of H2 by the recycle usage of H2 through the convenient gas–liquid separation of H2/CH3OH. Guided by the thermodynamic predictions, without any catalysts, the excessive H2 accelerates the direct hydrogenation of magnesite in a twin tower at a relatively low temperature of 550 °C, almost approaching thermodynamic limit of 67 % CO selectivity at a complete magnesite decomposition. The outlet syngas with an extremely high molar ratio of H2 to CO of 8 is further used for subsequent methanol production, achieving an outperformed 70 % CO conversion efficiency and over 99 % CH3OH selectivity. Comprehensive scale-up process simulations indicate that the proposed strategy could increase the H2 utilization efficiency by over 80 %, where the carbon footprint assessment illustrates when the green H2 from wind energy is supplied, the negative net CO2 emissions of −5.6 kgCO2/kgmethanol at a low energy consumption of 10 MJ/kgmethanol can be achieved, which highlights its promising industrialization prospects.

Financing green industrial transitions: A Swedish case study

Achieving global climate targets requires massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from energy-intensive industrial sectors. We investigate whether financing is an important obstacle for radical emission reduction in industry. We study Sweden as a case of a country that is comparatively advanced in its planning for transitions to low-carbon industrial production. We find that the size of capital investments or the availability of financing for these investments is not perceived as a significant obstacle. There are a number of factors explaining this, such as the fact that the companies involved in this study are well-established, large corporates, and hence well placed to finance their transition plans through conventional corporate finance channels, that conditions for market demand are good in the EU, and that many of the firms are in early stages of developing new technologies, when capital need is smaller compared to later stages. We also find that many financial actors express a strong appetite for sustainable investments. Finally, we observe that despite financing not being perceived as an obstacle, there is still a large and important role to play for public actors for reducing the risk of investments and accelerating the pace of change going forward.

Aggregate production planning and energy supply management in steel industry with an onsite energy generation system: A multi-objective robust optimization model

This paper introduces an optimization model developed for the steel industry, the most energy-intensive industrial sector in many countries. New methodologies for both aggregate production planning and energy supply management are developed to maximize profit while minimizing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, uncertainties are considered, and robustly optimized strategies are identified for a grid-connected steel production company with an onsite energy generation system. The performance of the developed model is evaluated through extensive computational experiments. The results show how energy tariffs affect integrated production planning. Also, the selected production planning time depends on several factors such as electricity, labor, and maintenance costs, and pending orders that need to be fulfilled. The onsite power plant produces electricity when the electricity production cost is lower than the price of electricity provided by the connected grid. Furthermore, the company’s environmental policies influence the choice of energy generation technology. However, implementing an onsite energy generation is a viable policy that benefits both profitability and pollutant reduction. This study helps decision-making in production planning and energy supply management in the iron and steel industry (which can be applied to other industries too), ensuring environmental improvement at the lowest costs.

A novel fuzzy-prospect theory approach for hydrogen fuel cell component supplier selection for automotive industry

The burgeoning automotive sector is an energy-intensive industrial sector, amounting to 94 M tons of oil equivalents (MTOE). Owing to more significant environmental concerns, there is a dire need to transition the energy-intensive mobility space to sustainable mobility. In this direction, hydrogen is being researched as a potential alternative clean fuel for the automotive sector; however, in the context of developing countries, hydrogen fuel cell technology is at a very nascent stage. Various policies and research projects are underway to realize the shift, but they must be underpinned through a robust supply chain network. The selection of an optimal supplier is key to the development of a robust hydrogen supply chain network. To this end, this work proposes the selection of an appropriate supplier for supplying critical components for different research and development projects of hydrogen fuel cells. This is still a lacuna in the context of developing nations. To aid in addressing this issue, a novel TODIM (TOmada de Decisao Interativa Multicriterio) decision-making framework has been proposed to select the optimal supplier to supply critical hydrogen fuel cell components. Within the proposed approach, the linguistic evaluations provided by experts are modeled using a more generalized linear Diophantine linguistic uncertain fuzzy set that circumvents the algorithmic restrictions on the falsity and truth grades. The linguistic assessments from the experts were aggregated using the linear Diophantine uncertain linguistic power Einstein weighted averaging (LDULPEWA) operator. The power Einstein operations take care of the interaction between falsity and truth grades, which is important for the accuracy of the results. Finally, the TODIM approach was used to deduce the final ranking results. The proposed method considers the specialists' willingness to take risks during the decision-making process. Such a decision-making framework is still a lacuna in the domain of decision science. The supposed results were tested for their stability through sensitivity analysis. A past case study was solved using the proposed approach to validate the rankings. A comparison of the suggested strategy with the existing prominent decision-making frameworks was also carried out to clearly highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach.

Global site-specific health impacts of fossil energy, steel mills, oil refineries and cement plants

Climate change and particulate matter air pollution present major threats to human well-being by causing impacts on human health. Both are connected to key air pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO_text {2}), primary fine particulate matter (PM_text {2.5}), sulfur dioxide (SO_text {2}), nitrogen oxides (NO_text {x}) and ammonia (NH_text {3}), which are primarily emitted from energy-intensive industrial sectors. We present the first study to consistently link a broad range of emission measurements for these substances with site-specific technical data, emission models, and atmospheric fate and effect models to quantify health impacts caused by nearly all global fossil power plants, steel mills, oil refineries and cement plants. The resulting health impact patterns differ substantially from far less detailed earlier studies due to the high resolution of included data, highlighting in particular the key role of emission abatement at individual coal-consuming industrial sites in densely populated areas of Asia (Northern and North-Eastern India, Java in Indonesia, Eastern China), Western Europe (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands) as well as in the US. Of greatest health concern are the high SO_text {2} emissions in India, which stand out due to missing flue gas treatment and cause a particularly high share of local health impacts despite a limited number of emission sites. At the same time, the massive infrastructure and export capacity build-up in China in recent years is taking a substantial toll on regional and global health and requires more stringent regulation than in the rest of the world due to unfavorable environmental conditions and high population densities. The current phase-out of highly emitting industries in Europe is found not to have started with sites having the greatest health impacts. Our detailed site-specific emission and impact inventory is able to highlight more effective alternatives and to track future progress.

Analysis of factors influencing the electricity (capacity) price growth in the energy market of the Siberian Federal District

One of the main competitive advantages of the Russian Federation in the industrial products world markets is the relatively low prices for electricity sold on the domestic market for the industry sectors. Low electricity prices for energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mining, oil extraction and refining, etc., allow Russian economy to occupy a dominant position in various areas of world markets, and industries are able to maintain financial stability indicators and finance modernization and technical re-equipment programs. In the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, on the territory of the Siberian United Energy System, which includes consumers of the Siberian Federal District, an increase in prices for electricity supplied to end consumers, primarily industry, was revealed. In March 2022, the increase in electricity prices compared to the same period of the previous year, in the Krasnoyarsk Krai was 18.2 %, in the Republic of Khakassia – 13.1 %. In other regions of Russia over the specified period, the increase in final electricity prices for industry averaged 2.6 %. Thus, the empirical analysis carried out in the article revealed that electricity prices in the regions of the Siberian Federal District actually began to approach the average electricity prices in other federal districts of Russia.

Direct and spillover effects of new-type urbanization on CO2 emissions from central heating sector and EKC analyses: Evidence from 144 cities in China

The new-type urbanization which emphasizes urban infrastructure improvement, together with neighboring cities, may influence CO2 emissions of urban facilities and energy-intensive industrial sectors. This study analyzes the spillover effects of new-type urbanization on CO2 emissions of the central heating sector in northern China during 2012–2019. We measured the new-type urbanization from six dimensions, then built three spatial Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) models based on an extended stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) framework. Our results show that CO2 emissions at the city level increased by 18.0% for every 1% increase in that city's own new-type urbanization level, while decreasing by 7.58% for every 1% rise in the average new-type urbanization level of its neighboring cities. The results indicate an inverted “U-shaped” relationship between new-type urbanization and CO2 emissions, and the peak will be earlier due to the spillover effects of urbanization at the city level.

Application of the transdisciplinary shipyard energy management framework by employing a fuzzy multiple attribute group decision making technique toward a sustainable shipyard: case study for a Bangladeshi shipyard

AbstractShipbuilding is an energy-intensive industrial sector that produces a significant amount of waste, pollution and air emissions. However, the International Maritime Organization concentrates only on reducing emissions during the operational phase. In order to completely phase out emissions from the shipping industry, a life-cycle approach must be taken. The study implemented the proposed transdisciplinary energy management framework in a Bangladeshi shipyard. The framework aims to support shipyard decision makers in making rational and optimized decisions to make shipyards sustainable, while maintaining good product quality and reducing relative cost. This is achieved by applying the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution methods to identify optimal solutions. In addition to making shipyards more sustainable, the framework can enhance both the business and socio-economic prospects of the shipyard and promote the reputation of the shipyard and improve its competitiveness and, in line with this, lead to the promotion of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement for States. The implementation of the framework shows that the political and legal discipline, the social criteria and the implementation of ISO 14001 and cyber security were the most important criteria and options for the yard's decision makers.

PIEZOCERAMICS TECHNOLOGIES: APPROACHES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT MITIGATION

The functional ceramic materials are broadly used in the electronic industry. Many of them are comprised of ferroelectric materials because of their outstanding piezoelectric and dielectric properties. Traditionally, the most popular piezoceramic materials are lead-based titanate-zirconate family (PZT), which have high values of piezoelectric properties. The negative aspect of PZT-based materials is associated with the toxic nature of lead. The toxicity of these materials makes their manufacturing and proper disposal difficult; hence, a new research direction has emerged to replace the lead-based materials with ceramic analogs containing no lead. Besides, the rising cost of energy and concerns about the environmental impact mitigation have necessitated more efficient and sustainable piezoceramics manufacturing processes. The ceramic industry is an energy-intensive industrial sector, and consequently, the potential to improve energy efficiency is enormous, mainly through the introduction of modern sintering tchnologies. Although toxicity and energy consumption are forms of environmental impact, strategies for managing each are different. While several technological approaches have been developed to reduce energy costs, there is a significant potential for improving environmental appeal of the process by introducing additive manufacturing methods, new sintering techniques and composites fabrication methods. This paper presents a brief analysis of the prospects for introducing 3D-printing methods in the production of piezoceramics and piezoelectric composites from the point of view of improving strategies for environmental impact mitigation.

Estimating the Carbon Emissions of Remotely Sensed Energy-Intensive Industries Using VIIRS Thermal Anomaly-Derived Industrial Heat Sources and Auxiliary Data

The energy-intensive industrial sector (EIIS) occupies a majority of global CO2 emissions, but spatially monitoring the spatiotemporal dynamics of these emissions remains challenging. In this study, we used the Chinese province with the largest carbon emissions, Shandong Province, as an example to investigate the capacity of remotely sensed thermal anomaly products to identify annual industrial heat source (IHS) patterns at a 1 km resolution and estimated the carbon emissions of these sources using auxiliary datasets and the boosting regression tree (BRT) model. The IHS identification accuracy was evaluated based on two IHS references and further attributed according to corporate inventory data. We followed a bottom-up approach to estimate carbon emissions for each IHS object and conducted model fitting using the explanatory strength of the annual population density, nighttime light (NTL), and relevant thermal characteristic information derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). We generated a time series of IHS distributions from 2012 to 2020 containing a total of over 3700 IHS pixels exhibiting better alignment with the reference data than that obtained in previous work. The results indicated that the identified IHSs mostly belonged to the EIIS, such as energy-related industries (e.g., thermal power plants) and heavy manufacturing industries (e.g., chemistry and cement plants), that primarily use coal and coke as fuel sources. The BRT model exhibited a good performance, explaining 61.9% of the variance in the inventory-based carbon emissions and possessing an index of agreement (IOA) of 0.83, suggesting a feasible goodness of fit of the model when simulating carbon emissions. Explanatory variables such as the population density, thermal power radiation, NTL, and remotely sensed thermal anomaly durations were found to be important factors for improving carbon emissions modeling. The method proposed in this study is useful to aid management agencies and policymakers in tracking the carbon footprint of the EIIS and regulating high-emission corporations to achieve carbon neutrality.

Sustainability potentials of an innovative technology and plant system in non-ferrous foundries

The planetary boundaries of our earth, the increasing economic importance of resource efficiency as well as the responsibility for the livelihoods of future generations require, today more than ever, the development of sustainable production solutions in which the necessary resources are used efficiently instead of being consumed. The energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as the foundry industry, are particularly committed to the set goals of sustainability and resource efficiency. In this context, an innovative technology and plant system for a flexible and automatable melt supply in non-ferrous foundries was developed and presented. This system enables closed-loop process control, which completely eliminates the previously mandatory ladling processes and reveals considerable potential for saving energy costs and CO2 emissions. As a consequent continuation, the presented paper focuses on a closer examination of the central innovative burner technology, which for the first time enables the safe and efficient processing of preheated combustion air with a control quality previously only known from electrical heating solutions. The effects that can be achieved with the new system in terms of energy demand and CO2 emissions, logistical flexibility, reduced production costs and the elimination of the previously required measures for melt cleaning (chemical and mechanical) are presented. Finally, the potentials for further sustainability improvements are discussed.

Energy-Saving Technology Opportunities and Investments of the Italian Foundry Industry

The foundry industry is regarded as one of the most energy-intensive industrial sector due to its energy consumption up to 9 MWh/ton of produced metal. As a result, many companies are trying to increase the energy efficiency of their foundry plants. Since many energy-saving technologies are proposed by manufacturers and the literature, choosing the most appropriate one is a difficult task. Moreover, being updated with the available energy-saving solutions is complicated because of the quick technology advances. Consequently, this paper aims at investigating the recent and future opportunities and investments for reducing the energy consumptions of the technologies of Italian foundry companies. Additionally, it aims at presenting a list of available technological solutions validated by Italian experts. To this end, the Energy Audits developed by 231 plants were analyzed to extract the implemented and planned interventions. Furthermore, the economic data available within the Energy Audits were studied to determine the advantages of a given technological solutions compared to the others. It emerged that the companies are strongly investing in increasing the efficiency of the auxiliary systems such as compressors and motors. The outcomes of this study can assist both researchers and energy managers in choosing the most appropriate energy-saving solutions.

Evaluation of Calcium Looping Cycle as a Time-flexible CO2 Capture and Thermo-Chemical Energy Storage System

Currently, the time flexibility of energy conversion systems is an issue of great operational importance considering the high integration of time-irregular renewable energy sources (e.g., solar, wind) which put an additional pressure on the conventional fossil-based systems. In addition, the reduction of fossil CO2 emissions from various energy-intensive industrial sectors needs to be addressed considering the issues of global warming and climate change. This paper evaluates the innovative Calcium Looping (CaL) cycle both as an energy-efficient post-combustion CO2 capture option and as a time-flexible thermo-chemical energy storage system. As illustrative energy conversion system to which the calcium looping cycle will be applied, a natural gas-based combined cycle power plant was considered. The net power output was about 400 - 500 MW with a 90 % CO2 capture rate. Corresponded non-decarbonized case was also considered to calculate the CO2 capture penalty. In-depth modelling, simulation and thermal integration evaluations were done to cover the following relevant operational elements: characterization of decarbonized combined cycle power plants with CaL cycle with / without solid sorbent storage; mass and energy integration issues; detailed techno-economic and environmental calculations of main performance indicators; flexible part load operation of the power plant to take advantages of CaL thermo-chemical energy storage characteristics etc. As the results show, the flexible time-operation of the decarbonized power plant integrated with CaL cycle using sorbent storage option improves the overall performances e.g., capital cost reduction up to 10 %, lower electricity production cost up to 5 % etc.

Geometry influence on optimized operation of a dry agitator bead mill

In the search for energy reduction potential, a large number of systems in the energy-intensive industrial sector of comminution are being investigated. In addition to the requirement for constant minimization of energy consumption, the demand for higher quality and fineness of the manufactured products is growing. These two requirements can usually only be met by new developments of milling equipment. Such a new development and the subsequent optimization of the process-determining parameters are presented here. The mill under investigation is a dry-operated agitated bead mill, whose design and mode of operation is based on a wet-operated bead mill.Five essential parameters for the plant operation of the dry agitator bead mill have been investigated: Besides filling level of the grinding media and circumferential speed of the agitator to achieve a reliable reference operation setup, particularly the number of agitators and the resulting distances between them, respectively, the wall distance of the agitator arms and the recirculation load in classifier-closed-loop operation. By adjusting the operating and geometry parameters, the specific energy consumption can be decreased from more than 150kWh/t to about 80kWh/t. Based on the findings of this work, the influence of individual parameters is shown and evaluated for the application under consideration. Thus, an optimal setup for the machine operation is defined.

Industrial energy use and decarbonisation in the glass sector: A UK perspective

• Energy use and decarbonisation options for the UK Glass sector have been evaluated. • The glass sector was examined in its historical context and industrial structure. • Glass is largely recyclable, and can contribute to ‘circular economy’ aspirations. • The techno-economic improvement potential of glass-making processes was assessed. • ‘Technology roadmaps’ were developed for various alternative scenarios out to 2050. The potential for reducing industrial energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the UK glass sector has been evaluated, although the lessons learned are applicable across much of the industrialised world. It encompasses a range of product outputs, including flat glass (for glazing in the construction and automotive industries), container glass (bottles and jars), domestic glassware, fibreglass, and scientific hollow glass. Glass processing is a moderately energy-intensive industrial sector, and its GHG emissions are relatively low (~3% of those emanating from UK industry as a whole). This technology assessment was conducted within the context of the historical development of the glass sector, as well as its contemporary industrial structure. Currently available technologies will lead to short-term energy and GHG emissions savings in the sector, but the prospects for the commercial exploitation of innovative technologies by mid-21 st century is speculative. Glass is potentially 100% recyclable, and could therefore contribute to UK ‘circular economy’ or resource efficiency aspirations. Finally, a set of low-carbon UK technology roadmaps for the glass sector out to 2050 has been developed and evaluated, based on various alternative scenarios and the techno-economic characterisation of improvement potentials. These roadmaps help identify the steps needed to be undertaken by industrialists, policy makers and other stakeholders in order to facilitate decarbonisation of the UK glass sector.

Understanding the sustainable consumption of energy resources in global industrial sector: Evidences from 114 countries

The rapid development of industry, which is an energy-intensive sector, may lead to an increased amount of energy consumption. Energy consumption decoupled from economic growth is one of the statuses towards sustainable development. This study conducted a decoupling analysis between industrial energy consumption (IEC) and industrial economic growth (IEG) to identify their relationship. It was found that among the 114 studied countries, there were 32 countries where strong decoupling occurred during the period of 2000 to 2017, while that of others were yet to come. Further, the key factors influencing the IEC of each country are identified based on the factor-related changes over the 17 years. For the 114 countries, the improvement of industrial energy output (IEO) was the most significant driver for IEC, and population also played its role in IEC increment; the reduction of industrial energy intensity (IEI) was the primary inhibitor for IEC, and the decrease of industrial employment rate slightly turned the IEC down over the period. For promoting the decoupling and less energy consumption in the industry, it is suggested to improve the energy efficiency, decelerate the industrial development, or shift the more energy-intensive industrial sectors to less energy-intensive ones, such as services. The study provides a global perspective for IEC reduction with the evidences of 114 countries, and its findings and policy implications provide the status quo and way forward for the countries aiming at reducing their IEC.

Towards Deep Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries: A Review of Current Status, Technologies and Policies

Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO2 emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition for electrification and increased use of biofuels will be essential for a successful transition towards carbon neutrality. The study focuses on Sweden as a reference case, as it is one of the most advanced countries in the decarbonisation of industries. The paper concludes that it may be technically feasible to deep decarbonise energy-intensive industries by 2045, given financial and political support.

Current state of Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency in the European energy intensive sectors

The implementation of Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency is linked to the ongoing technological development. New technologies can lead to an increased up-take of these concepts, which affect all areas of process industries and involve the whole workforce. The present paper describes part of the work developed in the early stage of a current Erasmus+ project entitled “Skills Alliance for Industrial Symbiosis: A Cross-sectoral Blueprint for a Sustainable Process Industry (SPIRE-SAIS)”. Such project aims at developing an industry-driven and proactive skills strategy to assist the implementation and exploitation of Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency across the energy-intensive industrial sectors, which are represented by the association of Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE). The main aspects of the current state of implementation of Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency in European process industries are analyzed. In addition, upcoming techniques and developments are taken into account for the main considered sectors, e.g., Iron and Steel, Chemical, Non-ferrous Metals, Mineral, Water, Ceramics, and Cement. Achieved results on implementation of technologies and practices based on Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency, as well as new challenges coming from their accomplishments are considered. Companies’ perceptions on future implementation of Industrial Symbiosis and Energy Efficiency are explored, together with possible barriers resulting in implementation practices and expected solutions to satisfy related ongoing and future skill demands.