Industrial ecology

History

Industrial ecology was popularized in 1989 in a Scientific American article by Robert Frosch and Nicholas E. Gallopoulos. Frosch and Gallopoulos' vision was "why would not our industrial system behave like an ecosystem, where the wastes of a species may be resource to another species? Why would not the outputs of an industry be the inputs of another, thus reducing use of raw materials, pollution, and saving on waste treatment?" A notable example resides in a Danish industrial park in the city of Kalundborg. Here several linkages of byproducts and waste heat can be found between numerous entities such as a large power plant, an oil refinery, a pharmaceutical plant, a plasterboard factory, an enzyme manufacturer, a waste company and the city itself. Another example is the Rantasalmi EIP in Rantasalmi, Finland. While this country has had previous organically formed EIP's, the park at Rantasalmi is Finland's first planned EIP.

The scientific field of industrial ecology has grown quickly. The Journal of Industrial Ecology (since 1997), the International Society for Industrial Ecology (since 2001), and the journal Progress in Industrial Ecology (since 2004) give Industrial Ecology a strong and dynamic position in the international scientific community. Industrial ecology principles are also emerging in various policy realms such as the circular economy. Although the definition of the circular economy has yet to be formalized, generally the focus is on strategies such as creating a circular flow of materials and cascading energy flows. An example of this would be using waste heat from one process to run another process that requires a lower temperature. The hope is that strategies such as this will create a more efficient economy with fewer pollutants and other unwanted by-products.

Examples

The Kalundborg industrial park is located in Denmark. This industrial park is special because companies reuse each other's waste (which then becomes by-products). For example, the Energy E2 Asnæs Power Station produces gypsum as a by-product of electricity generation; this gypsum becomes a resource for BPB Gyproc A/S which produces plasterboards. This is one example of a system inspired by the biosphere-technosphere metaphor: in ecosystems, the waste from one organism is used as inputs to other organisms; in industrial systems, waste from a company is used as a resource by others.

Apart from the direct benefit of incorporating waste into the loop, the use of an eco-industrial park can be a means of making renewable energy-generating plants, such as Solar PV, more economical and environmentally friendly. In essence, this assists the growth of the renewable energy industry and the environmental benefits that come with replacing fossil fuels.

Additional examples of industrial ecology include:

• Substituting the fly ash byproduct of coal burning practices for cement in concrete production
• Using second-generation biofuels. An example of this is converting grease or cooking oil to biodiesels to fuel vehicles.
• South Africa's National Cleaner Production Center (NCPC) was created in order to make the region's industries more efficient in terms of materials. Results of the use of sustainable methods will include reduced energy costs and improved waste management. The program assesses existing companies to implement change.
• Onsite non-potable water reuse
• Biodegradable plastic created from polymerized chicken feathers, which are 90% keratin and account for over 6 million tons of waste in the EU and US annually. As agricultural waste, the chicken feathers are recycled into disposable plastic products which are then easily biodegraded into soil.
• Toyota Motor Company channels a portion of the greenhouse gases emitted back into their system as recovered thermal energy.
• Anheuser-Busch signed a memorandum of understanding with biochemical company Blue Marble to use brewing wastes as the basis for its "green" products.
• Enhanced oil recovery at Petra Nova.
• Reusing cork from wine bottles for use in shoe soles, flooring tiles, building insulation, automotive gaskets, craft materials, and soil conditioner.
• Darling Quarter Commonwealth Bank Place North building in Sydney, Australia recycles and reuses its wastewater.
• Plant-based plastic packaging that is 100% recyclable and environmentally friendly.
• Food waste can be used for compost, which can be used as a natural fertilizer for future food production. Additionally, food waste that has not been contaminated can be used to feed those experiencing food insecurity.
• Hellisheiði geothermal power station uses groundwater to produce electricity and hot water for the city of Reykjavik. Their carbon byproducts are then injected back into the Earth and calcified, leaving the station with net-zero carbon emissions.

Future directions

The ecosystem metaphor popularized by Frosch and Gallopoulos has been a valuable creative tool for helping researchers look for novel solutions to difficult problems. Recently, it has been pointed out that this metaphor is based largely on a model of classical ecology, and that advancements in understanding ecology based on complexity science have been made by researchers such as C. S. Holling, James J. Kay, and further advanced in terms of contemporary ecology by others. For industrial ecology, this may mean a shift from a more mechanistic view of systems, to one where sustainability is viewed as an emergent property of a complex system. To explore this further, several researchers are working with agent based modeling techniques.

Exergy analysis is performed in industrial ecology to use energy more efficiently. The term exergy was coined by Zoran Rant in 1956, but the concept was developed by J. Willard Gibbs. In recent decades, utilization of exergy has spread outside physics and engineering to the fields of industrial ecology, ecological economics, systems ecology, and energetics.