Application of Industrial Ecology Principles for Enhanced Resource Efficiency in Heavy Industrial Areas

Global environmental and resources challenges facing modern industrial development demand for sophisticated engineering, economic and social solutions. The current levels of emissions, effluents and solid wastes from industrial activities are arguably already beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. Lower ore grades, tighter regulatory requirements, competition for energy and water resources, and mounting social expectations require the resource industries to be radically more efficient. Industrial ecology, which has emerged as a scientific discipline over the last two decades, aims to have industrial systems mimic robust natural eco-systems with the reuse and recycling of matter and energy. Such a philosophy could provide worthy solutions for these challenges.Existing industrial ecology approaches and their practical application show great promise for broad implementation in heavy industrial areas all around the world. However, a key challenge that remains is to demonstrate how industrial ecology could effectively deliver improved resource efficiency to reduce the environmental burdens of industry through the development of regional resource synergies, or industrial symbiosis.The current critical barriers in regional synergy methodologies, identified through the literature review, concern the limited understanding of industrial ecology principles plus several other key factors. These include:• a disconnect between the theoretical industrial eco-system types and existing industrial areas examples, which prevents the comparison between different areas and the monitoring of progress in industrial symbiosis development;• no systematic classification of synergies (e.g. material exchanges between industries) for effective benchmarking of existing and potential industrial synergies;• limited recognition of different non-technical barriers and enablers for industrial symbiosis development, and no approaches to tackle these in regional studies.Comparisons of different regions and the assessment of their progress in industrial symbiosis development are hampered by the lack of data, the complexity of industrial systems, and commercial sensitivity issues. Being unable to measure and quantify the effectiveness of synergies can be a significant shortcoming and barrier for improving resource efficiency. Responding to these limitations, this research aims to develop a new framework for realising and advancing industrial ecology application at the regional level.The framework combines high-level principles of industrial ecology, which provide general guidance on how to improve environmental performance of an industrial region from the management, engineering, and eco-system perspectives, with a detailed analysis of industrial material flows and potential barriers to achieving better industrial symbiosis outcomes in the area.At the core of the framework are two new tools – “regional resource synergy matrix” and “industrial symbiosis maturity grid”, which were developed to assist with the analysis of data in the case studies. These tools provide a better understanding of the regional status through the thorough classification of data, and its subsequent mapping on the synergy matrix (material flows data), and maturity grid (analysis of barriers to industrial ecology). The tools allow for effective benchmarking and comparisons between different industrial areas, also indicating a potential path for further improvements and the development of regional sustainability strategies.The framework has been tested on two industrial regions – Berezniki (Permskiy krai, Russia) and Gladstone (Queensland, Australia). In both cases, its application helped to categorise existing resource exchanges and waste flows, and assisted the investigation for potential synergies. The implementation of identified new synergy projects could significantly improve the environmental performance of industries in both areas. However, the potential for the uptake of new synergies in the regions is limited by the identified existing non-technical barriers. These barriers include environmental regulation, lack of cooperation and trust between different industries in the area, economic barriers, and lack of information sharing.The new industrial ecology framework, developed through this research, extends the capabilities of existing methodologies to better understand the gradual transformation of the industrial eco-system from the ‘linear material flows’ type to the ‘sustainable cyclical’ type. By integrating material flows-based synergies analysis with the investigation of critical (non-technical) barriers to industrial symbiosis development in heavy industrial areas, the framework both assesses the current situation and highlights potential improvements towards a more sustainable resource efficient region. Furthermore, the framework allows for effective benchmarking and comparisons between different industrial areas, thereby contributing to learning and sharing of experience from the regional studies.