Optimal Design of Eco-Industrial Park for End-of-Life Vehicles

Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are promoting a shift from the traditional linear model to the circular model, where Industrial Symbiosis (IS) plays an important role in encouraging the exchange of materials, energy, and waste. The European Directive of ELVs 2000/53/EC considers scrap vehicles- or End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs)- as waste. According to the official journal of the European Communities, ELVs account for up to 10% of the total amount of waste generated annually in the European Union. This doctoral research incorporated methods and approaches from operations research as well as sustainability science. The research has contributed to the scientific body of the knowledge in the following ways: (1) providing a generalized framework to design Eco-Industrial Parks which serves as a guideline for decision-makers during the first stages of developing EIPs, (2) proposing a design for Eco-Industrial Parks for End-of-Life Vehicles (EIP-4-ELVs) with petrol and diesel types of vehicles, (3) developing a Mixed-Integer Liner Programing (MILP) model which optimizes the exchange of material flows in the network, and (4) presenting a case study of ELVs recovery network in Qatar and apply the developed network. This research is organized as a manuscript-style dissertation including three papers. The results of this research will provide a conceptual model to guide the implementation of Eco-Industrial Parks

Generalized Framework for the Design of Eco-Industrial Parks: Case Study of End-of-Life Vehicles

Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are promoting a shift from the traditional linear model to the circular model, where industrial symbiosis plays an important role in encouraging the exchange of materials, energy, and waste. This paper proposes a generalized framework to design eco-industrial parks, and illustrates it with regard to the end-of-life vehicle problem (ELV). An eco-industrial park for end-of-life vehicles (EIP-4-ELVs) creates synergy in the network that leverages waste reduction and efficiently uses resources. The performance of the proposed framework is investigated along with the interactions between nodes. The proposed framework consists of five steps: (1) finding motivation for EIP, (2) identifying all entities with industrial symbiosis, (3) pinpointing the anchor entity, (4) determining industrial symbiosis between at least three entities and two exchange flows, and (5) defining exchange-flow types. The two last steps are connected by a feedback loop to allow future exchange flows. The proposed framework serves as a guideline for decision makers during the first stages of developing EIPs. Furthermore, the framework can be linked to car-design software to predict the recyclability of vehicle components and aid in manufacturing vehicles optimized for recycling

Optimization Model for Sustainable End-of-Life Vehicle Processing and Recycling

The aim of this paper is to provide a mathematical programming model for sustainable end-of-life vehicle processing and recycling. Environmental benefits and resource efficiency are achieved through the incorporation of a processing and recycling network that is based on industrial symbiosis whereby waste materials are converted into positive environmental externalities aimed at decreasing pollution and reducing the need for raw materials. A mixed-integer programming model for optimizing the exchange of material flows in the network is developed and applied on a real case study. The model selects the components that maximize reusable/recyclable material output while minimizing network costs. In addition, GHG emissions are calculated to assess the environmental benefits of the network. The model finds the optimal processing routes while maximizing the yield of the components of interest, maximizing profit, minimizing cost, or minimizing waste depending on which goals are chosen. The results are analyzed to provide insights about the network and the utility of the proposed methodology to improve sustainability of end-of-life vehicle recycling