Fostering Circular Economy Through the Analysis of Existing Open Access Industrial Symbiosis Databases

Industrial symbiosis in Brazil: A systematic literature review

This study describes how industrial symbiosis is reposed in studies dealing with the Brazilian context. This study was based on a systematic literature review in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, relying on the Prisma method and a research protocol. The results embrace quantitative and qualitative aspects such as the number of publications, the territorial scope of the studies, authors and keywords networks. The sample was also segregated into three categories, theoretical works, opportunities and formed networks, reporting the presence of industrial symbiosis in Brazil in the extant literature. The main contribution of this research is to aggregate the studies already published in the international literature, demonstrate how the IS is reported and how they can be expanded in territories or business cases not yet portrayed.

Is Business Research Shaping the Circle? Systematic and Bibliometric Review of Circular Economy Research

A circular economy (CE) transforms the linear system into a resource flow model based on reusing products and materials and increasing lifetime periods. This academic work aims to review the current CE research status from business, economic, and managerial (BEM) research perspectives. We carried out a systematic and bibliometric analysis to gather information on the current state of the art applications and learn about the leading research topics and sources. To reach these goals, we reviewed 962 research papers published in journals indexed on the Web of Science. After analysing the articles, three categories emerged worldwide: literature reviews, case studies, and frameworks and guidelines based on the current closed-loop system approach. Results evidence that BEM research in the CE is focused on the existing barriers to adopting a CE. More concretely, findings show that CEs are being slowed by the fact that citizens and companies do not know how to be circular. At the same time, the article showcases how the BEM areas and the recurring topics in CE research are increasingly being developed by collaborations between engineers and economists to design and create robust and measurable closed-loop models.

Recurring Patterns and Blueprints of Industrial Symbioses as Structural Units for an IT Tool

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) deals with the set-up of advanced circular/cascading systems, in which the energy and material flows are prolonged for multiple material and energetic (re-)utilization within industrial systems. To facilitate the technology-enabling environment of IS systems, this work deals with the identification of recurring patterns in IS systems of specific IS case studies and deduction of elementary blueprints and structural units, setting an initial cornerstone to pool and synthesize existing IS knowledge and to deploy this knowledge base in an Information Technology (IT)-supported IS tool, which would remarkably advance the scope of action and development of IS systems. An explorative cross-case analysis was conducted by investigating 80 IS case studies in depth in order to illuminate recurring (key) patterns in IS systems by generalizing and abstracting IS main structures, compositions, resource exchange activities and measures. It has been shown that similar IS sectoral partnerships and resource exchanges have recurrently formed in different regions and hence, generalizable patterns can be deduced. This study identified common IS compositions, sector clusters and key/core/anchor entities and synthesized a content basis for a database of an IS resource exchange catalog based on existing/available IS information, which can be used in an IT-supported IS tool. It contains information of specific IS resource exchanges, broken down by industrial sectors, differentiating providing and receiving sectors and which respective exchanged waste flows were processed into which secondary material/product. Once this fundamental information/data base is incorporated and applied in an IT-supported IS tool, it enables the facilitated recommendation of potential IS partners and IS actions to optimize existing IS cases or to initiate IS development. Especially, first IS germ cells of (key) entities can be derived and connected to each other considering individual circumstances and (geographical) business environments.

Technical Viability Analysis of Industrial Synergies—An Applied Framework Perspective

To foster the implementation of Industrial Symbiosis, several support tools have been developed to facilitate the dissemination of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) and the engagement of stakeholders; the establishment of exchanges between companies, the so-called synergies; and the assessment of impacts and benefits. Despite this, it has been found that stakeholders still do not have a clear envisioning of the required steps to the technical implementation of synergies and there are no facilitating tools, such as methodologies, frameworks, modelling tools, and databases, among others, that aid to technically support decision-making of synergy implementation. Thus, the goal of this paper is to present a dedicated framework that provides a set of guidelines and defines a technical viability analysis to support the implementation of potential synergies, which can be used and replicated by any IS practitioner. It comprehends a methodological approach to assess the compliance of a given synergy opportunity; its characterization concerning the definition of the necessary intermediary steps for the technical implementation; and an assessment of the technical feasibility of the synergy. The implementation of the framework allowed the successful technical validation of the studied synergy opportunities, providing a final technical viability assessment that can support decision-making of technology selection and synergy implementation.