2. Did you know? a
h
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pr
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o
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t
i
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on
at
g
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ly
nerates
62 million
tons of waste with an
average annual growth rate
of 4% .
There is an urgent need to
reduce the wastage of
resources either by reusing or
recycling the "waste" products.
Is there a solution? c o
a
n
s
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t
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de
is
re
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d
o
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nger
trash or
abandoned material, but as
an asset or resource that can
generate revenues in crores.
Industrial symbiosis provides a
means for the waste of one
industry to be used as the raw
material for another, making
waste a valuable asset and
increasing resource utilisation.
3. Problem
More demand for certain
goods and services leads to
more waste produced.
Increase in waste generation
from food industries and
various other sectors.
4. S olutions
Use of the waste generated by
other sectors (as catalysts and
raw materials)
Agricultural wastes are being
used as raw materials for
biomass industries for making
biofuels.
Downcycling done for making low
grade materials out of the same
material (glass industry)
5. Introduction
Industrial symbiosis is the process by
which wastes or by‐products of an
industry or industrial process become
the raw materials for another.
Application of this concept allows
materials to be used in a more
sustainable way and contributes to the
creation of a circular economy.
Industrial symbiosis creates an
interconnected network which strives to
mimic the functioning of ecological
systems, within which energy and
materials cycle continually with no
waste products produced. This process
serves to reduce the environmental
footprint of the industries involved.
6. Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is an innovative approach
that brings together companies from different
sectors in an effort to promote the valorisation of
waste, improvement of resource efficiency and
reduction of environmental impact.
Industrial symbiosis keeps valuable resources in
use for as long as possible by identifying cross-
sectoral business opportunities for utilising them.
It can play a big role in helping industrial clusters
achieve net-zero, particularly by addressing scope
3 emissions.
It also generates significant micro- and
macroeconomic benefits and can be a catalyst for
innovation.
8. Kalundborg
Industrial
S ymbiosis
One of the earliest examples of industrial symbiosis
on a large scale in Europe is the Kalundborg
industrial park in Denmark. It brings together an
increasing number of partners that are currently
exchanging resources, as diverse as biomass,
gypsum, and steam.
This sort of symbiosis began in Kalundborg in 1961,
initially with the area’s water supply. It was not
officially referred to as ‘industrial symbiosis’ until
1989.
Kalundborg S ymbiosis is made up of different
streams including water, energy and material flows.
The resource flows emanate from six industrial and
three public sector organizations.
9.
10. There are currently over thirty exchanges of materials
among the actors of Kalundborg.
The Asnaes Power S tation is at the heart of the network.
The power company gives its steam residuals to the
S tatoil R efinery, meeting 40% of its steam requirements,
in exchange for waste gas from the refinery.
The power plant creates electricity and steam from this
gas. These products are sent to a fish farm and Novo
Nordisk, who receive all of their required steam from
Asnaes, and a heating system that supplies
homes.
These homeowners pay for the underground piping that
supplies their heat, but receive the heat reliably and at
a low price.
11. F ly ash from Asnaes is sent to a cement company, and gypsum
from its desulfurization process is sent to Gyproc for use in
gypsum board. Two thirds of Gyproc's gypsum needs are met by
Asnaes.
S tatoil R efinery removes sulfur from its natural gas and sells it to
a sulfuric acid manufacturer, Kemira. The fish farm sells sludge
from its ponds as fertilizer to nearby farms, and Novo Nordisk
gives away its own sludge, of which it produces 3,000 cubic
meters per day. The sludge is to be refined for biogas for the
power plant.
Water reuse schemes have also been developed within
Kalundborg. S tatoil pipes 700,000 cubic meters of cooling water
per year to Asnaes, which purifies it and uses it as "boiler feed
water."Asnaes also uses approximately 200,000 cubic meters of
S tatoil's treated wastewater per year for cleaning.
14. Naroda by-product Exchange
The best example of such eco industrial development is Naroda by product
exchange network in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. There were several industrial symbiosis
initiatives in it.
It includes conversion of 100 tons per month industrial food waste into biogas.
The commercial production of F eS O4fromspent acid.
The use of chemical gypsum in cement manufacturing to avoid disposal.
The use of iron sludge in brick manufacturing which is produced by dye
manufacturing industries.
16. Narela Industrial Estate
The Narela industrial estate in New Delhi constructed with the
objective of minimizing economic costs. They have common effluent
treatment plant (CETP), common guesthouses, common storage
facilities, and common worker tenements.
17. However, in order to make industrial
symbiosis a wide-spread commercial
reality, more needs to be done to
manage the flow of waste material
from different sectors and industries,
and there is still much to understand
about:
environmental and societal impacts
harmonization of technologies, processes,
policies
civil society engagement to a circular
economy at EU level
waste resources information
waste treatment technologies
business models and coordination between
value chain actors.
