SYMBIOPTIMA is an H2020 project funded under the SPIRE-6 action. The project proposes a completely new paradigm for industrial clusters: the human-mimetic symbiosis. Drawing inspiration from one of the most complex biological organism, namely the human body, it promotes the mutual interaction of diverse industries, also among different sectors, for beneficial reuse of flows (e.g. water, waste, by-products, energy, recycled materials) that could result in a more resource-efficient production at network level, and in fewer adverse environmental impacts. Synergy and optimization of the flows of a cluster are obtained thanks to the hierarchical decentralization of operations management tasks to multiple collaborating Production Units, integrating at inter-plants and cross-sectorial level the monitoring, supervision and shared optimization of their activities.

SYMBIOPTIMA will improve European process industry efficiency levels by:

  1. developing a cross-sectorial energy & resource management platform for intra- and inter-cluster streams, characterized by a holistic model for the definition, life-cycle assessment and business management of a human-mimetic symbiotic cluster. The platform multilayer architecture integrates process optimization and demand response strategies for the synergetic optimization of energy and resources within the sectors and across value chains;
  2. developing extensive, multi-disciplinary, modular and plug&play monitoring and elaboration of all relevant information flows of the symbiotic cluster;
  3. integrating all thermal energy sources, flows and sinks of the cluster into a systemic unified vision, as nodes of smart thermal energy grid;
  4. taking into account disruptive increase of cross-sectorial re-use for particularly impacting waste streams, proposing advanced WASTE2RESOURCE initiatives for PET.

The development of such a holistic framework will pave the way for future cross-sectorial interactions and potentialities. Furthermore, starting from available LCSA and interoperability standards, an holistic LCSA framework will be developed and here adopted, thus granting easy upgradability of legacy devices and a large adoption by device producers.

Modularity, extendibility and upgradability of all developed tools will improve scalability and make the SYMBIOPTIMA approach suitable both at small and large scale.