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Thermoeconomic fuel impact approach for assessing resources savings in industrial symbiosis: Application to kalundborg ecoindustrial park

Abstract:

Thermoeconomics is a powerful analysis tool for Industrial Symbiosis because:i) it provides a systemic approach and ii) the use of exergy allows the characterization of both energy and matter flows by using a common basis. Furthermore, techniques developed within Thermoeconomics for the analysis, synthesis, optimization and diagnosis of energy systems may be adapted for its application to Industrial Symbiosis. A general methodology for relating the savings of resources of a given eco-park with improvements in local efficiencies of components, introduction of integrations and variations of park production is presented. The approach is based on the fuel impact approach developed in Thermoeconomics for the diagnosis of the operation of energy systems, but introduces significant improvements:i) the introduction of integrations requires the modelling of discrete changes in the productive structure of the system and ii) the purpose of the comparison is to analyze effects of improvements instead of reduction of efficiency. The formulation is applied to the example of symbiosis in Kalundborg, where the present situation is compared to a reference state without symbiosis. Exchange flows considered include waste heat, steam, ash, waste gas and gypsum, which are shared among a power plant, a refinery, a district heating system, a plaster board industry, a cement plant, a fish farm and others. Application of the methodology points out how the integration of by-products causes local savings that, in turn, produce savings at eco-park level.