WATER SYMBIOSES

“WATER SYMBIOSES” CREATED A MANUAL AND 20 NEW POTENTIAL SYMBIOSES

The project “Kalundborg water symbioses – Mapping of water, energy and material streams, along with development and demonstration of new symbiosis initiative” identified 20 new potential symbioses in Kalundborg. In connection with this work, a methodical approach to the facilitation of industrial symbioses was developed, and this resulted in a general manual for symbiosis collaborations.

In Kalundborg there has been a long-standing tradition of industrial collaboration within water, energy and materials. So, one of the aims of the project was to identify further potential symbiosis opportunities. Companies both within and outside the existing Kalundborg Symbiosis took part in the project. The companies did not merely contribute data; they also participated actively in the qualification and selection of the five most attractive out of the 20 potential symbioses. Several of the symbioses were examined and analysed more closely by the companies during 2015.

The background to the project is that increased pressure on drinking water resources has led to an increased focus on replacing the use of water of drinking water quality with the use of secondary water, which is water of another quality than drinking water. At the same time, more effective cleaning technologies are being developed, which means that financially it is becoming more and more realistic to upgrade secondary water, so that it meets the requirements for a given purpose. Accordingly, the focus of the project was to examine and optimise the use of secondary water in industrial symbioses among industrial companies. In industrial symbiosis, secondary water is not regarded as lower quality water, but as a potentially valuable resource, where the wastewater from a company can contain components that minimise or eliminate the addition of new substances when being reused in another industrial production.