349
loops. Coupled with the high-value innovative and entrepreneurial landscape that
we need to make this happen, do we indeed have the basis for this new industrial
revolution? This question and how we might take steps towards this within a lowcarbon economy are addressed in general in Chaps. 6 and 7 . The LOCIMAP project sought to address the question specifi cally within the context of industrial
parks.
3 LOCIMAP: Guiding Principles
Industrial symbiosis was recognised as the key principle to achieving this industrial
revolution by the LOCIMAP project. It represents the cornerstone of not only a lowcarbon industrial manufacturing park but a low-carbon economy. This business
principle, if not the name, has been in operation as long as industry has existed; it is
greatly underexploited.
A number of sectors have prepared roadmaps to a low-carbon industry, e.g.
Cement Technology Roadmap 2009 (OECD et al. 2009 ), Steel’s Contribution to a
Low-Carbon Europe 2050 (Wörtler et al. 2013 ), Paving the Way to 2050: The
Ceramic Industry Roadmap (Cerame-Unie 2012 ), Unfold the Future: The Forest
Fibre Industry 2050 (CEPI 2011 ) and Roadmap to a low-carbon bio-economy: An
Aluminium Roadmap to a low carbon Europe: Lightening the Load (EAA 2012 ).
These are highly professional documents, but (with the possible exception of the
cement industry and to some extent the paper industry) they are in many cases limited in their vision, principally restricting the analysis to their own sector. To be
truly effective, industrial symbiosis needs to be cross-sectoral. More than that, it
should go beyond the optimisation of resources in a given location to the selection
of the location at the point of business investment. Ultimately, the driver for the
uptake is simply that of best practice business delivering both competitivity and
environmental benefi ts.
The requirement is to deploy the principles of industrial symbiosis in a bold and
strategic way. For example, why shouldn’t the blast furnace off-gas from the iron
and steel industry be used as syngas within the chemical industry? To illustrate the
point, many factories within the chemical or petrochemical industry have as the
unavoidable result of established processes – and despite the efforts of generations
of engineers – signifi cant quantities of low-grade heat. Similarly, many food factories have a demand for cooling. The potential for the chemical industry supplying
refrigeration capacity through absorption chilling opens up a solution that is not
available within single sectors. This is a far-ranging comment since it implies a
breadth of imagination at not only the business and engineering level but also that
of strategic planning. Though it may not be always practicable for two sectors to be
cheek by jowl geographically, this does not prevent them from having a thermodynamic umbilical link. Again, these examples draw in the requirement to be strategic
and to include local government, planners and politicians alongside business and
engineering.
19 Quantifying the Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: The LOCIMAP Project…
loops. Coupled with the high-value innovative and entrepreneurial landscape that
we need to make this happen, do we indeed have the basis for this new industrial
revolution? This question and how we might take steps towards this within a lowcarbon economy are addressed in general in Chaps. 6 and 7 . The LOCIMAP project sought to address the question specifi cally within the context of industrial
parks.
3 LOCIMAP: Guiding Principles
Industrial symbiosis was recognised as the key principle to achieving this industrial
revolution by the LOCIMAP project. It represents the cornerstone of not only a lowcarbon industrial manufacturing park but a low-carbon economy. This business
principle, if not the name, has been in operation as long as industry has existed; it is
greatly underexploited.
A number of sectors have prepared roadmaps to a low-carbon industry, e.g.
Cement Technology Roadmap 2009 (OECD et al. 2009 ), Steel’s Contribution to a
Low-Carbon Europe 2050 (Wörtler et al. 2013 ), Paving the Way to 2050: The
Ceramic Industry Roadmap (Cerame-Unie 2012 ), Unfold the Future: The Forest
Fibre Industry 2050 (CEPI 2011 ) and Roadmap to a low-carbon bio-economy: An
Aluminium Roadmap to a low carbon Europe: Lightening the Load (EAA 2012 ).
These are highly professional documents, but (with the possible exception of the
cement industry and to some extent the paper industry) they are in many cases limited in their vision, principally restricting the analysis to their own sector. To be
truly effective, industrial symbiosis needs to be cross-sectoral. More than that, it
should go beyond the optimisation of resources in a given location to the selection
of the location at the point of business investment. Ultimately, the driver for the
uptake is simply that of best practice business delivering both competitivity and
environmental benefi ts.
The requirement is to deploy the principles of industrial symbiosis in a bold and
strategic way. For example, why shouldn’t the blast furnace off-gas from the iron
and steel industry be used as syngas within the chemical industry? To illustrate the
point, many factories within the chemical or petrochemical industry have as the
unavoidable result of established processes – and despite the efforts of generations
of engineers – signifi cant quantities of low-grade heat. Similarly, many food factories have a demand for cooling. The potential for the chemical industry supplying
refrigeration capacity through absorption chilling opens up a solution that is not
available within single sectors. This is a far-ranging comment since it implies a
breadth of imagination at not only the business and engineering level but also that
of strategic planning. Though it may not be always practicable for two sectors to be
cheek by jowl geographically, this does not prevent them from having a thermodynamic umbilical link. Again, these examples draw in the requirement to be strategic
and to include local government, planners and politicians alongside business and
engineering.
19 Quantifying the Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: The LOCIMAP Project…