Urban and industrial symbiosis for circular economy: Total EcoSite Integration

The paper presents an extension of Pinch Analysis and namely, Total Site Process Integration. It benefits from up to date developments and introduction of Total EcoSite Integration for urban and industrial symbiosis. An important development is Pinch Analysis for Solid Waste Integration which is a crucial step for the symbiosis in a circular economy. As the potential EcoSites are usually extensive and cover various units, a methodology based on clusters has been used. The solution has been supported by graphical tools using the analogy with already implemented extensions of Pinch Analysis. The results of a demonstration case study revealed the potential of the novel approach. The identified integrated design increased the energy recovered from the solid waste by 11.39 MWh/d and diverted 2 t/d of the waste from the landfill, benefiting both the urban and industrial site. The proposed approach is also capable of minimising the requirement of energy-intensive thermal drying for waste whenever the process allowed, subsequently offer a solution with lower environmental footprint and cost. For future work, a even more comprehensive case study can be conducted by considering the other forms of the waste, recovery process and drying approaches. [Display omitted] •Total EcoSite Integration is proposed for symbiosis in Circular Economy.•A Pinch Analysis based method for Solid Waste Integration is newly introduced.•The integrated design increases the heat recovered from the solid waste by 20%.•About 2 t/d of solid waste is diverted through Industrial and Urban Symbiosis.•Required hot utility in the industrial process (960 MW) and drying is minimised.