Designing Industrial Networks Using Ecological Food Web Metrics

Integrated environmental assessment and management, 2010

The paper presents an application of the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) to the planning and environmental management of an ''eco-industrial cluster.'' A feasibility study of industrial symbiosis in southern Italy is carried out, where interlinked companies share subproducts and scraps, services, structures, and plants to reduce the related environmental impact. In particular, the research focuses on new recycling solutions to create open recycling loops in which plastic subproducts and scraps are transferred to external production systems. The main environmental benefits are the reduction of resource depletion, air emissions, and landfilled wastes. The proposed strategies are also economically viable and they suggest cost abatement for the involved companies. This research shows the need for a multidisciplinary approach to data processing and to complexity managing of the investigated systems. In this context, life-cycle thinking is required to be promoted throughout the economy, as well to be as a part of all decisions on products and other criteria such as functionality, health, and safety. The Life-Cycle Assessment approach can be assumed as a methodology for influencing decision makers to make sustainable choices. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2010;6:52-60. ß 2009 SETAC

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2003

Ecological engineering (EE) and industrial ecology (IE) strive to balance humanity's activities with nature. The disciplines have emerged separately but share theoretical foundations and philosophies on how to address today's complex environmental issues. Although EE and IE share motive, goals, theories, and philosophies, there are many differences. These similarities and differences may make for a strong symbiotic relationship between the two fields. The goals of this article are (1) to compare and contrast the two fields to identify opportunities for collaboration and integration and (2) to suggest three crossdisciplinary focal areas that bridge EE and IE. The first symbiotic area, ecosystem engineering for byproduct recovery, is defined as the design, creation, and management of living ecosystems (e.g., forests, wetlands) that utilize the by-products of industrial systems. Examples of this exist, including constructed wetlands for lead recovery and phyto-mining of nickel tailings. The second symbiotic focus is entitled "ecosystem analogues for industrial ecology," which fits with a founding principle of IE to strive to have industry emulate the energy efficiencies and material cycles of natural ecosystems. This focal area quantifies the ecological analogy and exploits the tremendous library of design alternatives that nature has developed over thousands of years to deal with varied resource situations. The third focal area is termed "ecosystem information engineering." The means by which living ecosystems have created robust knowledge systems and information cycles should be understood in terms useful for managing current society's information explosion. As industrial society evolves toward the information society, holistic models are needed that account for the available energy and material resources required to operate effective information ecosystems, such as service industries.

Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2020

The efficient use of natural resources and energy become a critical issue due to the increasing population and environmental pollution worldwide. Recently, industrial symbiosis as a way of better utilization of natural resources has gained popularity. The forest industry is one of the most critical sectors since wood is a valuable natural resource. In this study, we propose a theoretical industrial symbiosis network located in an eco-industrial park, which is hosting companies focused on forest industry such as pulp & paper producers, pellet plants, sawmill, fiberboard, and particleboard producers. The designed network also includes an organic fertilizer plant and a water treatment facility. To establish the network, life cycle assessment (LCA) method is utilized. Data obtained from LCA enables us to determine the amount and type of possible by-products, waste and energy that can be exchanged in this network. Next, the location of the plants in the park is determined using the Automated Layout DEsign Program (ALDEP) by considering the flows of by-products and waste between facilities. Finally, the economic and environmental benefits of stakeholders in the network are analyzed using the developed multi-objective multi-period mathematical model. The objectives of this model are to minimize the total production cost of the companies in the network and to minimize their CO 2 emissions, simultaneously. Results reveal that in such an industrial symbiosis network in which the ultimate goal is cleaner production, the use of virgin resources will decrease while the economic benefits of companies in the network increase.

2020

The subject of research is industrial ecosystems. The purpose of the work is to formulate the principles for ecosystem projects functioning at different stages of their lifecycle. The article systematizes the problem of applying the ecosystem approach in cross-sectoral interaction. The following tasks have been resolved as a result of the study: the need to classify the projects according to the ecosystem levels has been considered and substantiated, the essence and concept of ecosystem life cycle has been disclosed, theoretical principles for industrial ecosystem functioning have been formulated, the main categories have been clarified, the general concept for ecosystem approach implementation has been formulated. The article illustrates this concept using a case study of National University of Science and Technology "MISIS". The role and functions of the ecosystem integrator as "an entry point" to form new ideas, competences, concepts, technological solutions and initiate new projects to develop and test new products and technologies are shown. The practical significance of the research results consists of the possibility to use certain concepts in industrial enterprise management as well as to develop program documents and strategies for socioeconomic development of the country and individual regions.

Production Planning & Control, 2015

This paper presents a supply chain network design framework that is based on multi-objective mathematical programming and that can identify 'eco-efficient' configuration alternatives that are both efficient and ecologically sound. This work is original in that it encompasses the environmental impact of both transportation and warehousing activities. We apply the proposed framework to a real-life case study (i.e. Lindt & Sprüngli) for the distribution of chocolate products. The results show that cost-driven network optimisation may lead to beneficial effects for the environment and that a minor increase in distribution costs can be offset by a major improvement in environmental performance. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on eco-efficient supply chain design and closes the missing link between model-based methods and empirical applied research. It also generates insights into the growing debate on the trade-off between the economic and environmental performance of supply chains, supporting organisations in the eco-efficient configuration of their supply chains.

2012

Industrial ecology is a new approach to the designing and operating industrial systems as living systems interdependent with natural systems. It is a concept in which an industrial system is viewed not in isolation from its surrounding systems but in concert with them. It seeks to balance environmental and economic performance within emerging understanding of local and global ecological constraints. Some of its developers have called it "the science of sustainability". Industrial ecology seeks to optimize the total materials cycle from raw material to finished material, to component, to product, to waste product, and to ultimate disposal. We can say that Industrial Ecology is: • The study of the flows of materials and energy in industrial and consumer activities. • The study of the effects of these flows on the environment. • The study of the influences of economic, political, regulatory, and social factors on the flow, use, and transformation of resources.

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 2012

The concept of sustainable manufacturing is a form of pollution prevention that integrates environmental considerations in the production of goods whilst focusing on efficient resource use. Taking the Industrial Ecology (IE) perspective, this efficiency comes from improved resource flow management. The assessment of material, energy and waste (MEW) resource flows therefore offers a route to viewing, and analysing a manufacturing system as an ecosystem using IE biological analogy and can in turn support the identification of improvement opportunities in the MEW flows. This application of IE at factory level is absent from the literature. This paper provides a prototype methodology to apply the concepts of IE using MEW process flows to address this gap in the literature. Various modelling techniques were reviewed and candidates selected to test the prototype methodology in an industrial case. The application of the prototype methodology showed the possibility of using the MEW resource flows through the factory to link manufacturing operations and supporting facilities, and to identify potential improvements in resource use. The outcomes of the work provide a basis to build the specifications for a modelling tool which can support those analysing their manufacturing system to improve their environmental performance and move towards sustainable manufacturing.

ANNALS OF THE ORADEA UNIVERSITY Fascicle of Management and Technological Engineering , 2013

ABSTRACT — Industrial Ecology is a new field of research, which covers the physical, chemical and biological interactions and interrelations both within the industrial systems and between the ecological and industrial systems. The implementation of an IE framework embeds the strategy of clean production and pollution prevention in industrial activities, at corporate level. Such policies must emphasize the activities of waste minimization, recycling, pollution control, reusing, at operational level. The exchange of 'wastes' between independent firms in some sectors has been taking place for over a century, simply because it makes good business sense. The establishment of 'industrial ecosystems’, however, is a relatively new phenomenon. The paper presents the theoretical background of industrial symbiosis and practical examples of this new paradigm.

Journal of Transport Geography, 2015

The management of the product life cycle needs industrial synergies along large-scale networks to collect, recycle, reuse, and recover the end-of-life products. This paper provides a tool to assess the enabling economic, environmental, and transport geography conditions to design sustainable closed-loop networks for the management of a generic product along its life-cycle. The proposed tool is built through a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the strategic design of a multi-echelon closed-loop network. The product life cycle is handled via a cascade through seven stages, including raw material suppliers, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retailers, collection nodes for waste and by-products, recycling centers, and landfills. The model minimizes a cost-based and a carbon-based function to determine the optimal geographic location of the nodes of the network and the allocation of transport flows. The model is applied to a case study inspired by the furniture industry over the Italian geography and a multi-scenario analysis is illustrated. The resulting considerations on the economic, environmental performances of the network couple with the transport geography to provide guidelines for designer, logistics planners and regional geographers toward a circular economy scenario.

Ecological Engineering, 2014

Sustainable engineering design requires consideration of technical and ecosystem structures and processes. Even though the concepts of ecosystem services and natural infrastructure are maturing, their application in concrete engineering design is currently lacking due to their ambiguous definitions and a lack of methods that allow for the combined consideration of ecosystem and technical approaches in engineering design. This article proposes and discusses a new functional organization analysis (FOA) method for the comparative analysis and design of supply systems for basic needs (i.e., water, energy or food). This method allows for the analysis of the organization of system functions as well as underlying technical and ecosystem structures and associated processes. On this basis the method allows one to gather data, information, and knowledge about alternative system designs, and analyze their synergies. The theoretical and conceptual background of the proposed FOA method is presented, along with a case study regarding sustainable food supply systems in Southwestern Ontario.