Challenges of value creation in Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs): A stakeholder perspective for optimizing energy exchanges

Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) are complex organizations to facilitate Industrial Symbiosis (IS) among a set of production units. IS can generate values from material and energetic wastes in the Circular Economy domain. However, there are very few examples of well-functioning EIPs in practice due to the complexity of creating a win-win equilibrium for all participants in material or energy exchanges. A barrier for initiating synergies in an industrial zone is the lack of methods to measure the profitability and environmentally friendly resolutions that EIPs can provide. Stakeholders (e.g. industrial zone managers) are more interested in a real synergetic network that could add value to all the stakeholders rather than exporting the extra steam from one site to another. This paper is based on an empirical study of an industrial zone in France to propose a tool for modeling and optimizing streamline exchanges among industries sites. The optimization objectives are defined for the cost and environmental impact of exchanges to be minimized. To bridge gaps in the existing optimization models, real conditions and technical features are considered to decide optimal industrial symbiosis, especially for heat exchange networks. The proposed method has been used to optimize an industrial park in France. The uncertainty analysis shows the resilience of established connections in the network under variations of key economic, social, and environmental parameters. Thus, it helps decision makers in identifying optimized networks to be invested for sustainable objectives.