Green Steps

«The by product of one company is the raw material of another one»

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How can the waste produced by an industry become the raw material of another one? In order to face the XXI th century issues, - the lack of resources, water, energy and waste management-, the industry has to learn how to think new ways of producing. Kalundborg study case has been widely studied as an authentic example of circular economy and smart collaboration at an industrial scale.

 

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Historical review

The story started forty years ago, in 1961 when Statoil launched a first private public partnership with the city of Kalundborg. The company needed a huge amount of water supplies. They financed the construction of pipelines to the nearby lake, that would be built and managed by the city.

 

But the first real example of partnership between two companies started in 1972 when Statoil entered into an agreement with Gyproc. The producer of gypsum boards was using a lot of oil energy to dry the plasterboards, and decided to use the supply of excess gas from Statoil’s production.

 

The following year, in 1973, Dong Energy power plant was connected to the Statoil water pipe. Later, in 1982-83, the company decided to find a way to up-cycle the steam produced during the electricity generation process. They now supply Statoil, Novozyme and Novo Nordisk with steam.

 

Kalundborg today: an industrial symbiosis

The partnerships continued to grow through years to create today a unique ecosystem where residues and by products of companies goes into the cycle of production of another one, as you can see on the image below.

 

The terms ‘industrial symbiosis’ was used for the first time in 1989 to describe this unique network. Today, Danish forefront industries are situated in Kalundborg, as the world's major producer of insulin Novo Nordisk, and major producer of enzymes Novozyme, the largest Danish oil refinery owned by Statoil, the French company Gyproc which creates gypsum boards, the waste treatment company Kara Novoren,  the biggest power plant in Denmark owned by Dong Energy. The partnership also includes Kalundborg municipality and Kalundborg Forsyning which provides inhabitants with water and district heating.

 

A sustainable and viable network

Through this collaboration the companies achieve an economic advantage and an environmental balance. The industries can rely on resources which doesn’t vary at a global scale depending on the financial market, or political relations. Resources are partly available on a very local and more stable market.

 

The agreements of the symbiosis are based on business as well as economic principles of returns of investments. They are renewed only if both parts find an economic advantage. This is the center of the collaboration: the companies are working in a close loop but each company remains independent.

For example Gyproc has stopped their 1972 agreements with Statoil as natural gas became less expensive that than the refinery excess gas. In th other way round, the power plant has changed its production from mainly electricity to steam, as the energy demand was decreasing, while the need of steam was increasing for the other industries.

 

Those cooperation have been created in an existing network of industries, but could also be thought for the creation of new industrial areas. Peer Olander Nørgaar, head of  Kalundborg Symbiosis  communication, explained us that the biggest barriers where not technical issues: the keys of success rely on the coolaboration, curiosity  and open mindedness of parties.

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Sources:

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​http://www.symbiosis.dk/en ; http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/L-economie-circulaire,45403.html

Interview with Peer Olander Nørgaard

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Photos: crédits Kalundborg Symbiosis

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