Circular Economy Learning from Nature

MSc Stdy Programme Industrial Ecology - Gijsbert Korevaar MSc Study Programme Industrial Ecology

Circular Economy – Learning from Nature Apeldoorn, October 21st, 2013 Dr. G. (Gijsbert) Korevaar Assistant Professor Industrial Symbiosis Delft University of Technology and Leiden University


Layout

1. Introduction

2. Linear versus Circular Economy

3. Decoupling Economic Growth and Environmental Impact

4. Other Approaches and Design Tools

5. Industrial Ecology – Learning from Nature

6. Industrial Symbiosis

7. Concluding Remarks



GDP and energy consumption


Oil production and Population growth



Sustainable Development

Sustainable development

• 1987: WCED (Brundtland report)

• 1992: UNCED (Rio declaration)

Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 1994)

• people, planet, profit (or: prosperity)


Specific un-sustainability items Johannesburg Declaration 2002

• clean water and food scarcity

• depletion of scarce resources

• biodiversity reduction

• deterioration of ecosystems

• climate change

• growing inequity

http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm






Linear versus Circular Economy


Product Use Waste resource Environment

Linear Economy


re-use

Product Use Waste

Energy

re-manufacture

resource Other products

Re-use and Re-manufacture


Product Use Waste

Energy

resource

upcycling

Other products

downcycling

Downcycling versus Upcycling


re-use

Product Use Waste

Energy

re-manufacture

resource

upcycling

Other products

downcycling

Circular Economy



Decoupling Economic Growth and Environmental Impact


IPAT equation

Environmental Impact (I) = [Population (P)] [Affluence (A)] [Technology (T)]

Generation of waste

& pollution and use

of resources/GDP

Number

of people

GDP/Number

of people

Environmental Impact (I) = generation of waste and pol-

lution and use of resources

=


Decoupling

Economic Growth Environmental Impact


Decoupling Strategies


Other approaches and Design Tools


Other approaches to Sustainability and/or the Circular Economy

• Biomimicry

• Cradle to Cradle

• The Natural Step

• Industrial Ecology


Biomimicry

Adapt to and learn from Nature

• Quieting

• immerse ourselves in nature

• Listening

• interview the flora and fauna of our own planet

• Echoing

• encourage biologists and engineers to use nature as model

• Stewarding

• preserving life’s diversity and genius


The Natural Step’s - 4 System Conditions

• In a sustainable society, nature is not subjected to systematically increasing:

• Concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust.

• Concentrations of substances produced by society.

• Degradation by physical means.

• And, in that society, human needs are met worldwide.


McDonough/Braungart’s Rules

• Emulate natural systems • Wherever possible, design materials and systems that will be cycled

repeatedly in biological or technical metabolisms

• Envision a solar-powered world • The quality of energy matters; use renewable energy sources which

protect human and environmental health

• Celebrate diversity • Make design decisions to support a strategic balance of ecology,

equity and economy

• Anticipate design evolution • Design to accommodate changing uses over time, adaptation to

improved technologies, and safe disassembly and reuse of components


Industrial Ecology – Learning from Nature


Ecological System


Human System


Biosphere – Technosphere Analogy




IE Textbooks



Industrial Symbiosis


Industrial Symbiosis

Massard, 2011




Drivers and Barriers for IS


Contexts of Industrial Symbiosis


Symbiotic Types in The Netherlands


What can we learn from NISP?

• Keep it Regional – ensure that the distances are not to large and that knowing each other is an important benefit

• Think in Synergies – support contacts and contracts between companies with skilled officers

• Knowledge Management – keep track of opportunities by involving the industry and reliable databases

• Show the Benefits – create business cases that show that symbiosis and synergy are interesting investments for production companies and the financial sector

• Convince Business and Government – show that symbiosis leads to less waste, more jobs, better business climate, and a stable economy


Keep in touch

Dr. ir. G. (Gijsbert) Korevaar

Assistant Professor Industrial Symbiosis

Delft University of Technology

Jaffalaan 5

2628 BX Delft

[email protected]

+31 15 278 3659

Skype: gijsbert.korevaar

LinkedIn: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/gijsbertkorevaar

mailto:[email protected]

http://nl.linkedin.com/in/gijsbertkorevaar




Backup Slides


Industrial Ecology in general

Industrial - material flows of Society …

- Ecology … learning from and adapting to Nature

• Physical economy, processes and structures in the techno-sphere

• Natural resources, their renewal and their abundance

• Technology and systems, for providing goods and services

• Processes of technological change

• Consumption patterns of goods and services

• Organisation of systems along the life-cycle

• Processes of social political change


Industrial Symbiosis – the industrial application of IE

Industrial - production, transport, logistics …

- Symbiosis … linked together with a mutual benefit

What is needed:

• Process Intensification

• Innovative (Bio)-Chemical Routes

• Design Value Chains and Supply Chains as Closed Loops

• Smart Infrastructures

• Sufficient Diversity

• Organisational Embedding

• Evaluation and Management of Sustainability Performance


Ris

k

Ad

va

nta

ge

Utility Sharing

Collective Management

Knowlede Innovation

By-Products Exchange

Scale

Advantage, Risk and Scale of IS


Benefits of industrial symbiosis

• Overall reduction of

• raw material use

• energy and water use

• transport and storage used

• Efficiency and quality improvements of core business and support functions


Risks of Sharing

• Interdependence of companies

• liability issues

• quality of waste flows / raw material

• moving of companies (key species ?)

• changes in company policy

• May hinder more radical solutions

• from pollution prevention to ‘trading toxics’

• a system change does not result from only replacing products or technologies by more green alternatives


• 4 main activities: oil & chemistry, container shipment, logistics,

• (distribution), trade/services (agricultural industry, shipbuilding, metallurgy)

Mainport Facts & figures


• Area: 10.556 ha (incl. water)

• Mass flows: 403 million tons/year, 80 mton processed by HIC

• Energy production: 3000 MWe (14% Dutch production)

• Heat production: 2000 MW

• Energy consumption: 550 PJ

• Added value : > 10 billion Euros

• 86,000 jobs supplied

• CO2 emission: 26 megaton/year

Mainport Facts & figures II


Greenport Facts & figures

• Activities: production, supply,

• trade, distribution (export),

• processing, services,

• knowledge exchange

• Area: 4.235 ha

• Mass flows: plants, flowers, vegetables, emissions

• Energy production: electricity (CHP) & heat: unknown

• Energy consumption: 56 PJ.

• Added value : > 2,3 billion Euros

• 50,000 jobs supplied


Type 1: Linear Material Flows


Type 2: Quasicyclic Material Flows


Type 2: Quasicyclic Material Flows Industrial Ecosystem


Type 3: Cyclic Material Flows



Industrial System


Moerdijk – The Netherlands


Moerdijk Events

1992-1997 1998-2004 2005-2008 2009-2010

Companies take initiative

Port authority focuses on port sustainability

New port management plan; Clean Business Park Moerdijk

Sustainable Connections Moerdijk


Events Analysis

• 162 events

• 22 industrial symbiosis projects

EIP port of Moerdijk

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

EIP development in the Port of Moerdijk (1992 - 2010)

F1 Entrepreurial Activity

F2 Knowledge Development

F3 Knowledge Diffusion

F4 Guidance of Search

F5 Facillitating Industrial Symbiosis

F6 Resource Mobillisation

F7 Support from Advocacy Coalitions


Linkages


Port of Amsterdam

Port of Rotterdam & Pernis

Velsen-Noord (Tata)

Delftzijl

Moerdijk Terneuzen

Chemelot

Emmtech

De Kleef

Industrial/Harbour complexes


Type Definition Example

Utility exchange

Unilateral/Bilateral exchange between no

more than two firms to provide

'common/collective' production services

(energy, water, natural gas, sewage)

Two firms that make use of the same waste

treatment plant in which flows are not returned to

the firms from which the energy, water, natural

gas or sewage flow originated.

Utility network Bilateral exchange in a network of firms

(at least three) to provide

'common/collective' production services

(energy, water, natural gas, sewage)

At least three firms that make use of a

steam/heat network in which some provide and

some use energy

Waste/nutrient

recycling

Collection of various waste streams to

separate and valorise nutrients to be sold

as secondary resources or energy

generation

Firms that send a wet waste stream to a separate

waste recycling company to utilize available

nutrients and energy (digestion/biofuel

production)

By-product exchange Unilateral exchange between no more

than two firms to valorise by-products

from operations

An operational company that separates a

relatively clean by-product from its operations

that is utilized by another production company as

secondary resource for production

By-product synergy Bilateral exchange between two

companies in which input material is

utilized and (by)product is transferred

back to firm from which input material

originated

An operational company that separates a

relatively clean by-product (e.g. cokegas) from its

operations which is utilized by another production

company (e.g. CHP) as secondary resource for

production. The (by-)product (e.g.

electricity/heat) is used again by the company

from which the by-product originated ( in this

case cokegas).


Type Definition Example

Supply chain

co-siting

Firms that do business in the same

supply chain which are co-siting to

exchange by-products

Linkages that are set up because firms are already related by

their supply chain (core operational process) and reap the

extra benefits of exchanging materials or energy due to co-

siting.

For example, a petrochemical company cracks oil in which

reduction in size of chemical molecules takes place, another

firm processes a specific fraction to produce intermediates.

Intermediates are again used by other companies to make

fine chemicals. Many linkages exist between the companies

to valorise gases (e.g. H2) that is a by-product of the

chemical reaction or valorisation of residual heat.

Innovation and

business case

exploration

Firms that cooperate in innovation to

reap possible future benefits of

symbiosis

Firms that have intentions to align each other operational

processes which are making substantial investments to

realize by-product exchange(conceptual studies or EPCM

project phases)

Knowledge

sharing and

innovation

Firms sharing knowledge/innovating

with each other to promote eco-

innovation

Companies that work together to optimize production

process (possibly via integration) which for example

decreases the amount of generated waste improving eco-

innovation.


Circular Economy

• Crisis Economy

• Closed Economy

• Centralized Economy

• Constrained Economy


Utility Furniture

With thanks to: David Peck


Documents

Circular Economy Learning from Nature