Agent-based conceptual framework for energy and material synergy patterns in a territory with non-cooperative governance

Circular economy is gaining momentum as an answer for migrating towards a sustainable paradigm. Many literature studies were conducted to assess the feasibility of heating networks based on industrial heat recovery and similarly for material reuse and recycling aiming to propose technical options for energy efficiency and resource use whether on the process scale or on a larger inter-sites level. In addition, reacting conversion systems create new valorization opportunities for the energy or material streams. In this perspective, a novel conceptual framework, incorporating reacting thermodynamic conversion systems to the material and energy integration problems in non-cooperative economic scheme, was proposed in this work. The application of the proposed methodological framework on a realistic industrial park demonstrated how to implement conversion processes in a territory. The non-usable stream in the investigated park is woody biomass for which three conversion routes were challenged being the wood to hydrogen, methane production and cogeneration. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.