ESProNet: A Model Library for the Dynamic Simulation of Industrial Symbiosis

One approach to a more sustainable industry is the reuse of waste and by-products. In particular, the exchange of resources between companies and the reuse of energy are considered critical, as they are time-dependent and may require technical or organizational changes to the production system leading to new interdependencies between the companies. Simulation is a suitable tool for analyzing the dynamic behavior of production systems to identify and evaluate critical factors and risks with regard to compatibility or feasibility, necessary changes and their effects on the system. This paper presents a modeling and simulation approach for resource reuse and exchange in the context of industrial symbiosis. To distinguish the proposed method from related work, an overview of existing modeling and simulation approaches is presented. The suggested approach is based on the modeling language Modelica. A custom model library with reusable preconfigured model elements is developed to model and simulate different production systems and scenarios bottom-up and modularly and in order to investigate interactions between resource providers and consumers. The conceptual and mathematical development of the model components and their interaction principles are presented and demonstrated. Based on this, organizational interdependencies and their economic and ecological impacts can be analyzed.