Idendifying industrial symbiosis opportunities in emerging green industrial ecosystems

Industrial symbiosis is an increasingly important approach for improving resource efficiency and supporting sustainable industrial development. It involves collaborations between companies to exchange energy, materials, water, and other resources, creating both economic and environmental benefits. Professors Joakim Lundgren and Johan Frishammar at Luleå University of Technology investigate how industrial symbiosis opportunities emerge during the early planning stages of industrial development, with a particular focus on Luleå Industrial Park.

The project explores how industrial symbiosis opportunities can be identified and developed before industrial facilities become fully operational. This is especially relevant in Luleå Industrial Park, one of Europe’s largest green industrial transformation projects, where several major investments are being established, including fossil-free steel making, production of battery material, electro-methanol and fertilizers, as well as the extraction of critical rare earth minerals. Together with already existing plants such as anaerobic digestors and air separation units, these industries could generate significant opportunities to share resources across company boundaries.

Joakim Lundgren says that “the greatest opportunities in the industrial transition emerge when we adopt a systems perspective. Understanding how different industries and societal actors can collaborate is essential for avoiding suboptimal solutions and creating a robust, future-proof industrial ecosystem."

The study also highlights the important role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While large industrial firms generate the resource flows, smaller companies can contribute with innovative technologies to convert industrial by-products into valuable resources and create entirely new services around energy recovery, logistics, or resource management. They can also provide innovative business models and operational flexibility.

Through interviews with companies, public organizations, and other stakeholders, the researchers found that industrial symbiosis opportunities rarely emerge through technical analysis alone. Instead, they are often discovered through meetings, workshops, information sharing, and collaboration between actors with different perspectives and expertise. Researchers also identified several barriers that can prevent opportunities from developing. These include companies operating on different timelines, uncertainty about future resource needs, limited willingness to share information, regulatory constraints, and a lack of strategic commitment to symbiosis initiatives.

The key message is that industrial symbiosis opportunities are not simply “found.” They are actively created through a process of dialogue, trust-building, assessment, and joint planning. Technology remains essential, but successful collaboration depends just as much on people and organizations working together.

As industrial parks such as the one in Luleå continue to expand, their success will depend not only on individual investments but also on how effectively companies can connect their activities. Understanding how these opportunities emerge at an early stage may therefore be crucial for accelerating both regional economic development and the broader green transition.

As Johan Frishammar explains "The challenge is that industrial symbiosis opportunities appear long before companies know exactly what their future resource needs and flows will look like. When certainty finally arrives, the opportunity to design for symbiosis may already have passed.