Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Partnership for Industrial Ecology in Central Ohio
EPA Grant Number: R833348Title: Partnership for Industrial Ecology in Central Ohio
Investigators: Fiksel, Joseph , Bakshi, Bhavik R. , Long, Mike
Institution: The Ohio State University , Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO)
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: March 1, 2007 through January 31, 2010 (Extended to February 28, 2012)
Project Amount: $299,581
RFA: Collaborative Science And Technology Network For Sustainability (2006) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
The Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University (OSU) was awarded a Collaborative Networks for Sustainability (CNS) grant In March 2007, entitled Partnership for Industrial Ecology in Central Ohio. The objective of this grant was to develop an Industrial Ecosystem Toolkit that would support the practice of industrial ecology, and to engage regional partners in application of this toolkit to convert wastes into useful by-products. In conjunction with this grant, OSU has formed a number of collaborative partnerships and obtained additional funding to extend the work supported by EPA. Over the 3-year span of the grant, the project team was successful in developing innovative tools that were applied to achieve real-world results.
Industrial ecology is an approach to designing industrial systems that mimic the patterns seen in nature— wastes from one process become feedstocks for another process. This practice is also commonly known as by-product synergy (BPS). The premise of the CNS research project is that adoption of industrial ecology or BPS practices at a regional scale could significantly enhance sustainability by diverting wastes from landfills, conserving energy and resources, and stimulating local entrepreneurship. The original objectives of this project were to:
- Develop a systems-level model of resource flows and interdependencies in Central Ohio.
- Implement decision tools for evaluating the costs and benefits of innovative IE opportunities.
- Promote acceptance of IE innovations by regional businesses, citizens and public agencies.
The project originated from a partnership established in 2006 between Mike Long (co-P.I.), Executive Director of the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) and the Center for Resilience. SWACO’s support helped to produce an innovative tool for material flow network optimization called Eco-Flow™ with the goal of substantially reducing waste disposal to landfill. Although Mr. Long retired from SWACO in September 2007, he has continued to collaborate with OSU on this and other projects. In particular, he was instrumental in helping to create the Ohio By-Product Synergy (BPS) Network described later. Other key partners included:
- Andrew Mangan, Director of The U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development
- Jerry Tinianow, Center for Energy & Environment, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
- Otavio Silva, Bridging the Gap (a Kansas City non-profit that coordinates a BPS network)
- Erin Miller, Environmental Steward for the City of Columbus Mayor’s Office
- Dax Blake, Department of Public Utilities, City of Columbus
- Ron Smith, Office of Compliance Assistance and Pollution Prevention, Ohio EPA
The OSU research team consisted of Dr. Joseph Fiksel (P.I.), Dr. Bhavik Bakshi (co-P.I.), Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Dr. Marc Posner, Integrated Systems Engineering, Dr. Rajiv Ramnath, Computer Science & Engineering, and College of Engineering graduate students Emrah Cimren, Kieran Sikdar, Joe Bolinger, Oleg Mishchenko, Shweta Singh, and Bob Urban.
Finally, the project benefited from interactions with a number of EPA personnel, including Angie Leith, Office of Solid Waste, Derry Allen, Office of Policy, and Susan Mooney, Region 5.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The OSU research team pursued three parallel paths that were interwoven—toolkit development, toolkit application, and collaborative engagement. Toolkit applications were commenced very early in the project, thanks to an iterative prototyping approach that relied heavily on user feedback. The availability of advanced software tools has helped to encourage organizations to participate in collaborative BPS networks, and the formation of such networks has provided a test-bed for demonstrating the usefulness of the Industrial Ecosystem Toolkit. The team was also able to leverage this project by obtaining supplementary funding from other sources.
Toolkit Development
- Network Optimization. OSU independently developed a generalized mathematical model for optimization of industrial ecology networks, representing the process characteristics and flow pathways for conversion of waste materials into valuable commodities. The model was first validated with a simple network, and subsequently scaled up into a more complex, real-world model that has been implemented in Microsoft Excel and in the more advanced Eco-Flow™ tool. The latter makes it possible to visually construct an industrial network, and then to calculate the optimum pathways for material utilization, even in complex networks with hundreds of processing nodes. It can be used to maximize profitability and/or to minimize environmental impacts such as waste generation and fossil fuel combustion. This pre-existing technology provided the point of departure for development of the IE toolkit.
- Toolkit Architecture. The project team has developed an architectural framework for the Industrial Ecosystem Toolkit, depicted below. At the heart of the framework is the capability to visually construct, edit, analyze, and store industrial network models using Eco-Flow™. These models can be linked to secondary analysis modules, including sustainability indicators (such as TRACI coefficients for life cycle impacts). In particular, the Eco-Flow™ model has been coupled with Eco-LCA™, an advanced tool for ecologically-based life cycle assessment that was developed by OSU through a separate grant from the National Science Foundation. Additional capabilities depicted in the framework, but not yet developed, include a database for flexible storage and retrieval and an interpretive expert system capability.
System Dynamics Tool. OSU has collaborated with the Millennium Institute to develop an Ohio-oriented custom version of their proven T21 system dynamics tool for sustainability assessment. This tool, called T21-Ohio, complements the detailed industrial network model by providing an aggregate, state-wide view of the longer-term economic, environment, and social implications of changes in waste management policies and practices. Figure 3 depicts a simplified view of the major feedback loops underlying the three spheres of society, economy, environment; the actual model contains hundreds of more detailed variables. Based on both empirical data and mathematical relationships, the model can simulate the impacts of changes in policy, technology, or investment upon future economic and environmental indicators. The T21-Ohio model has attracted the interest of State policy makers, and is currently being utilized to evaluate the economic and social benefits of improved educational policies (supported by the Gates Foundation and the Business Higher Education Forum, in collaboration with Battelle Memorial Institute and the Ohio Business Roundtable). It has also been proposed by OSU as a climate strategy analysis tool for evaluating the economic and environmental impacts of selected energy policies best suited for Ohio.
Figure 3: Conceptual Overview of T2-Ohio Feedback Loops
Performance Indicators. As part of the toolkit, CfR identified a set of BPS performance indicators that can be used by businesses that adopt IE practices, as well as other interested parties, to track the cumulative financial and environmental benefits over time. These include:
- Energy savings, including direct energy use reductions as well as indirect reductions in life cycle energy demand for material production (i.e., the supply chain footprint of virgin materials is avoided by substitution of waste materials)
- Cost savings, including disposal costs, operating costs, and potential revenues generated through the sale of byproducts
- Greenhouse gas emission reductions, both direct and indirect, due to avoidance of fossil fuel combustion and other supply chain emission sources (e.g., calcination of limestone in cement production).
- Job creation, due to emerging opportunities for third-party services related to waste transformation, transport, and reuse.
- Economic revitalization, due to increased sourcing from local or regional entities (measurable through economic indicators such Gross State Product)
- Solid waste volume reduction, due to diversion of wastes from landfills.
- Landfill life extension, due to solid waste volume reduction.
Toolkit Application
- Central Ohio Waste Transformation Complex. SWACO operates one of the largest public landfills in the U.S., but its primary mission is to reduce reliance on landfills through waste reduction, reuse and recycling. The above network model was applied by SWACO to analyze a planned eco-industrial complex, with the purpose of transforming mixed wastes into valuable commodity streams including metals, fuels, and plastics. SWACO’s goal was to reduce waste to landfill by 15% in 2012, and by 50% over the longer term. Although portions of this vision have been realized (e.g., capture of landfill methane emissions to generate energy), following Mr. Long’s departure the SWACO-OSU partnership was discontinued.
- Kansas City BPS network. OSU worked with Bridging the Gap, a non-profit organization in Kansas City on an intensive pilot application of the Eco-Flow™ model to an existing BPS network with nine participants: Cook Composite & Polymers, Gerdau-Ameristeel, Hallmark, Harley Davidson, Kansas City Solid Waste District, Kansas City Power & Light, Lafarge Cement, Missouri Organics, and Systech. A variety of BPS opportunities were analyzed, including reuse of waste materials such as bottom ash, food waste, scrap metal, millscale, and polyethylene. Initial analysis suggested that the companies involved could collectively save up to $15 million per year by diverting wastes from landfill into productive uses.
- City of Columbus Biosolids Management. For the City of Columbus, Department of Public Utilities, OSU collaborated with a technical contractor, Malcolm Pirnie Inc., to support the master planning effort for capital improvements in a network of wastewater treatment systems. Specifically, the team evaluated management options for bio-solids at two major plants, and collected data to characterize the potential material flows, process capacities, processing rates, emissions, operating costs, and other technology specifications. Based on the Eco-Flow™ model, OSU recommended a strategy that promises to reduce operating costs by 25% and carbon emissions by 40%. The City is continuing to actively use the tool.
- The Ohio State University Solid Waste Management. The project team worked with OSU’s Facilities Operation and Development, Energy Services and Sustainability group, to apply the IE toolkit to evaluation of alternative strategies and pathways for campus solid waste management. The work was conducted by student interns, both undergraduate and graduate-level, who learned to utilize the Eco-Flow™ methodology and developed a series of analyses comparing the costs and environmental benefits of various technological options, such as the use of disposable vs. washable food containers and utensils. The resulting recommendations influenced the adoption of plans for energy and solid waste management, including a waste reduction initiative for the campus food service operations.
- USBCSD BPS Projects. As a result of the ongoing collaboration with the USBCSD, the Center for Resilience became an associate member of the USBCSD and has begun to work on systematic application of the IE toolkit to new BPS projects. The first of these is the Houston BPS project, which was in development during 2009 and formally kicked off in February 2010. The second is the Ohio BPS Network project described below. In both cases, the Eco-Flow™ tool and the coupled Eco-LCA tool will be applied to assess the economic and environmental benefits of potential by-product synergy pathways. Should these applications be successful, the tools will be further enhanced and will become a standard component of the USBCSD methodology to be applied to future BPS projects.
Collaborative Engagement
Industry Meetings. OSU organized a series of annual meetings in Columbus, Ohio during the period of the grant to build awareness and collaboration in the Central Ohio Region. The agendas and presentation materials for all of these meetings are available on the CfR website (http://www.resilience.osu.edu/CFR-site/byproductsynergy.htm).
- An introductory BPS network planning meeting was held in April 2007, hosted by Scotts Miracle-Gro at their headquarters in Marysville, OH. Speakers from OSU, SWACO, and USBCSD described the BPS approach, and there was great enthusiasm about the concept of turning “waste into profit.” OSU followed up by working with industry and government partners to lay the groundwork for a regional BPS network.
- To further identify BPS opportunities, a Business-to-Business Workshop was held in April 2008. Approximately 50 people attended, representing companies across Ohio as well government agencies, non-profits, and other interested parties. The purpose of the workshop was to share information about BPS initiatives in Ohio and elsewhere, and to lay the foundation for a collaborative network.
- OSU organized a BPS symposium in May 2009, in collaboration with the Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center, which represented the culmination of these previous meetings. Over 100 people registered from large companies, technology providers, government agencies, non-profits, and academia. Guest speakers included BPS practitioners from American Electric Power, Owens Corning, Procter & Gamble, Holcim, Battelle, and USBCSD, as well as several smaller firms.
Ohio BPS Network Launch. About 45 selected invitees attended the official launch meeting of the Ohio By-Product Synergy Network on October 21, 2009. This meeting, co-sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and USBCSD, included discussion about how to communicate the benefits of BPS and overcome the barriers, as well as a luncheon presentation by General Motors describing their global program. There was clear enthusiasm among the participants for moving forward. OSU and USBCSD have formed a project team to manage the Ohio BPS Network, and the team is currently in the process of signing up participating companies and organizing the first working meeting, scheduled for April 2010. Major companies that have joined the network to date include Procter & Gamble, Honda of America Manufacturing, and Worthington Industries.
Communication Materials. There are a number of barriers that inhibit the adoption of BPS practices, including the unfamiliarity of companies with waste utilization opportunities and the reluctance of management to depart from traditional practices. Effective communication is needed to provide managers with a compelling business case that showcases the successes of other BPS networks. To this end, with funding from the Ohio EPA, the team developed a multi-media educational toolkit and tested it with Ohio companies. The toolkit materials—print, presentation, and web-based content—explain the BPS concept and provide concrete examples of business applications and benefits. The materials include:
- Websites. We have established two website locations to disseminate the educational materials, along with other supporting information. One location is on the OSU Center for Resilience (CfR) website at http://www.resilience.osu.edu/CFR-site/byproductsynergy.htm. The other location is on a new website established specifically for the Ohio BPS Network project: www.OhioBPS.org. Both of these sites will be updated and expanded periodically.
- Video segment. We produced a 12-minute video segment called “Turning Waste into Profit,” which is available as a download (approximately 450MB) or as streaming video on the CfR website. It features a number of industry examples. The video is the centerpiece of the toolkit, and based on stakeholder feedback it has proven effective at generating interest in by-product synergy, and thus motivating companies to investigate other available educational materials. (The video was designed, scripted, and produced by a team of OSU students, under Dr. Fiksel’s guidance.)
- Presentation materials. We have developed a collection of presentation materials in PowerPoint form, including overview materials produced by CfR and supporting materials produced by collaborating companies about actual BPS accomplishments. These presentations were piloted through a series of industry meetings (see above). All of these presentations are available on the CfR website.
- Text documents. To supplement the above primary materials, we have developed a set of supporting documents that provide additional details about the by-product synergy process and examples of successful BPS experiences. All of these documents are available on the Ohio BPS website.
Conclusions:
Lessons Learned and Future Work
From the research and applications to date, several lessons have become apparent:
- Research teams can achieve excellent synergies and accelerated real-world impacts through “translational research” (i.e., engaging in parallel and coordinated efforts on tool development and collaborative applications).
- Giving companies access to tools that help to visualize, quantify, and optimize material flows can help them discover opportunities and build confidence in industrial ecology.
- The applicability of industrial ecology network analysis tools can range from specific facility partnerships to broad, regional-scale modeling.
- Preliminary results suggest that significant cost savings are possible for participating companies. As expected, environmental and financial benefits are closely correlated.
Continuing work will involve the following efforts:
- Apply the toolkit in collaboration with USBCSD to new and existing BPS networks.
- Promote broad adoption of industrial ecology practices by regional businesses, citizens, and public agencies through communication and community engagement.
- Integrate and enhance the toolkit framework to facilitate data entry by industrial users, storage and retrieval of specific sub-networks, and linkage with analytic tools.
- Extend the static, deterministic network modeling approach to capture temporal dynamics and probabilistic information for uncertain parameters.
- Apply the network modeling approach to analyze the linkages between industrial processes and ecological processes such as carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling.
- Explore the applicability of the toolkit to support policy decisions about energy, environment, and solid waste management at a regional or national level.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 3 publications | 1 publications in selected types | All 1 journal articles |
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Cimren E, Fiksel J, Posner ME, Sikdar K. Material flow optimizatiion in by-product synergy networks. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2011;15(2):315-332. |
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Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.