Impact of Industrial Symbiosis on Sustainability

This paper quantitatively examines the impact of industrial symbiosis on sustainability. The quantitative approach, as developed by the authors, is based on the concept of Industrial Sustainability Index (ISI), which represents the socio-economic benefit of an industry per unit of its carbon emissions. The ISI was evaluated for a chemical production plant both in independent and symbiotic modes with different energy technologies. The ISI value for the chemical production plant in independent mode was found to be 6 units. This was three times more than in the case of the existing symbiotic mode with an adjacent pulp & paper industry having coal fired CHP plant. With the adoption of more energy efficient technologies e.g. natural gas based combined cycle power plant and solar PV electricity generation; the ISI in the modified symbiotic mode can be increased to 18 units. The results indicate that industrial symbiosis can help in sustainability improvement when the technologies used by the industries are energy efficient.