Question:
Exhibit 14.1 presents a summary of the Kalundborg Industrial Park-an industrial symbiosis network located in Kalundborg, Denmark. Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from this case study:
a) What are some of the obvious limitations of industrial ecology in designing industrial infrastructures of the future? Answer this question with a focus on the potential for the wider application of industrial ecology on the design of industrial systems.
b) While an eco-industrial park is a good concept, it remains inapplicable to practice in the real world? Do you agree with this viewpoint? Why, or why not? Be specific.
Data from Exhibit 14.1
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Exhibit 14.1 The Kalundborg Industrial Park This park is located in a small industrial zone about 75 miles west of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and has a history that goes as far back as the early 1970s. The big players in this network of industrial cooperation consist of five companies and the town of Kalundborg, which has a population of about 20,000. The five companies (by what they produce) are Denmark's largest electric power station (coal-fired); the country's largest oil refinery; a pharmaceutical company; a plaster board factory; and a fish farm. These five companies and the Kalundborg municipality are linked through a network of pipes that allows them to exchange their by-products and wastes in ways that clearly represent a symbiotic cooperation. In other words, what brought this diverse group together is the recognition that there are economic benefits to be gained if they work in a mutually interdependent and cooperative manner. Most importantly, this cooperative relationship has positive environmental impacts since their mutual desire is to use waste (more specifically steam, steam gas, heat, water, sludge, and fish wastes) as raw materi- als. In this case, what happens is that one company's by-product becomes an important resource to one or several of the other companies in the industrial symbiosis network. For example, the power station is coal-fired and operates at about 40 percent thermal efficiency. This suggests that a significant portion of the energy generated goes up the stack as steam. However, through the mutually agreed upon association created by the power company, pipes were constructed to redirect the waste steam to heat factory operations in the pharmaceutical and oil-refining companies, as well as the Kalundborg heating station. The power station is in fact the biggest player in this network of indus- tries and, as part of a community, clearly benefits from exchanging its by-product (waste steam) to other parties in the network. However, the power station also benefits from its relationship with the oil refinery in another way. It receives fuel gas (a by-product of the oil refinery) to be used as a substitute for coal. Thus, the interaction between the two parties in the network is not necessarily one way. (For a complete discussion of this case, please see http://indigodev.com/Kal.html.)