Virtual sector profiles for innovation sharing in process industry : sector 01: chemicals

Production data in process industry are proprietary to a company since they are key to the process design and technology expertise. However, data confidentiality restrains industry from sharing results and advancing developments in and across process sectors. Using virtual profiles that simulate the typical operating modes of a given process industry offers an elegant solution for a company to share information with the outside world. This paper proposes a generic methodology to create sector blueprints and applies it to the chemicals industry. It details the profile of a typical chemical site based on essential units and realistic data gathered from existing refineries and chemical plants

Development of a methodology enabling the identification of industrial symbiosis opportunities and their assessment in the petrochemical industry

Industrial symbiosis consists of dissimilar entities sharing and valorising underutilised resources such as materials, energy, information, services, or technologies in view of increasing the industrial system’s circularity. However, despite all efforts and benefits brought by industrial symbiosis, barriers hindering a wide outreach of industrial symbiosis remain unsolved. This thesis targets one of the main barriers to industrial symbiosis: the lack of information sharing. The main research question can be expressed as follow: How to formalise and systematise the exchange of information between industrial partners to facilitate the identification and the assessment of new industrial symbiosis opportunities? The concept of blueprint is developed as a solution for the industry to enable different process sectors to overcome the burden of data confidentially and the challenge of sharing information. A blueprint is constituted of a series of profiles providing insights into key inputs and outputs of a given industry in terms of thermal and electrical energy, materials, and services. A methodology is presented, describing a step-by-step approach for defining the type of data required and for building the plant profiles. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, it is applied to a typical refinery. Finally, a number of examples is given, demonstrating how blueprints of different process sectors can be combined and evidencing their ability to detect industrial symbiosis. Likewise, considerations are made on their limitations

Use of blueprints for Industrial Symbiosis detection: the case of heat integration between a refinery and a District Heating Network

International audienc

Industrial symbiosis profiles in energy-intensive industries: Sectoral insights from open databases

International audienceProcess industries are the foundation of the European economy, transforming raw materials into building blocks for strategic products and applications in today's society. Such industries range from steel, cement, or minerals to chemicals such as lubricants for wind turbines and polymers that prevent waste in logistic supply chains. The downside of this foundation industry is its high environmental impact regarding emissions, and intensive use of energy and resources. One of the key strategies to address such challenges is industrial symbiosis: various industries establish collective efforts to find value while transitioning to a more circular economy. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of databases on IS case studies. We used the European standard classification for economic activities (NACE) to draw industrial sector profiles for the most relevant energy-intensive industries: chemicals, steel, and cement, coupled with urban synergies. The majority of the synergies includes the chemicals sector with most commonly shared streams being energy, water, and carbon dioxide. IS cases are ranked in terms of frequency, then classified in topical groups and finally, the sustainability impact of the different categories is discussed. The outcome is a methodology to frame and assess industrial symbiosis case collections useful for future exploring and exploiting circularity projects in public and private organisations

Blueprint: A methodology facilitating data exchanges to enhance the detection of industrial symbiosis opportunities – application to a refinery

International audienceThe European Union (EU) has put the concept of circularity at the heart of its strategy for transitioning towards a low-carbon economy and reducing the use of virgin resources. Concrete measures, such as clarifying rules on co-products or supporting innovative projects, have been taken in order to promote Industrial Symbiosis (IS)-turning one industry's co-product into another industry's raw material. However, one of the main barriers to the democratisation of IS remains the exchange of (confidential) data between industrial partners. Here, the concept of industrial sector blueprints is presented as a solution in order to overcome the challenge of sharing information across industrial sectors. A blueprint is constituted of a series of profiles providing insights on the key inputs and outputs of a given industry in terms of thermal and electrical energy, materials and services. A heuristic and comprehensive methodology is presented detailing a step-by-step approach for building the profiles and the type of data required. It is applied to a typical refinery demonstrating the efficiency of the method and showing how it can be used in an IS context