Methodology for Assessment and Optimization of Industrial Eco-Systems

Shyamal Gondkar, Sivakumar Sreeramagiri and Edwin Zondervan
Additional contact information
Shyamal Gondkar: Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands
Sivakumar Sreeramagiri: Innovative Plastics Program, GE India Technology Centre Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore 560066, India
Edwin Zondervan: Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands

Challenges, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: There is an emerging trend in evaluating industrial activities using principles of industrial ecology because of the emphasis on sustainability initiatives by major process industries. Attention has also been targeted at developing planned industrial ecosystems (IEs) across the globe. We point out the current state-of-the art in this exciting discipline and subsequently identify the challenges that have not been encountered by the scientific community yet. Ecological Input Output Analysis (EIOA) may be considered as an “all-inclusive model” for the assessment of an IE because of its ability to capture the economic, environmental, and societal behavior of an IE. It could also be utilized to illustrate the detailed inter-relationships among the entities of an IE. Optimization of a fully integrated IE using conventional multi-objective optimization techniques would be too complex. For such multi-objective optimization problems, Hierarchical-Pareto optimization discussed in the literature has shown promise, but there is a need to establish a methodology to assess and/or improve the robustness of an IE using such techniques.

Keywords: industrial eco-system; robust optimization; hierarchical optimization; emergy; ecological input output analysis; sustainability indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/3/1/49/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/3/1/49/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jchals:v:3:y:2012:i:1:p:49-69:d:18437

Access Statistics for this article

Challenges is currently edited by Ms. Karen Sun

More articles in Challenges from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().