Industrial symbiosis in circular economy

In Russian Federation the questions of transformation of the current linear model of economy into the low-carbon model having the least negative impact on the environment are very urgent. Among the ways to realize the required transition scientists recognize the introduction of the concept of circular economy, as well as the organization of a system of interaction between industrial enterprises on the basis of the principles of industrial symbiosis. The scope of application of the industrial symbiosis model in the circular economy remains insufficiently studied in the scientific environment, which actualizes its solution. There has been defined the hierarchy of conceptual and categorical apparatus of industrial symbiosis in the circular economy. Integration of the companies on the basis of using the model of industrial symbiosis takes place due to the combination of environmental and economic interests of its participants by forming the industrial value chain. Symbiotic links involve the rational use of resources, which leads to the less intensive production processes and, consequently, to the reduced carbon emissions. Obtaining a synergistic effect is an incentive that encourages industrial structures to form symbiotic links. There has been stated the growth of transaction costs, which can be designated as a negative effect of the industrial symbiosis model. The directions for reducing this influence are proposed: improving the pricing model for industrial waste, taking into account territorial proximity and the need for industry associations and unions to participate in finding partners. The concept of industrial symbiosis is considered and clarified, which includes the principles, purpose and effects to characterize this term. The conclusion about the role of industrial symbiosis in the circular economy has been made.

Comprehensive evaluation of water resources security of the Huaihe Eco-economic Belt

The study of water resource security is a basic scientific issue that must be faced in the construction of the ecological environment. To examine the status of regional water resources security in the Huaihe Eco-economic Belt, this study builds a comprehensive evaluation index system based on the ‘Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response’ (DPSIR) framework, combines the entropy weight method and Lotka-Volterra symbiosis model to calculate the water resources security status from 2010 to 2018. Then the fixed effects regression model is used to analyze the factors affecting the water resources system. The results show that (1) The status of water resources security in the Huaihe Eco-economic Belt decreased from 2011 to 2017 and, thereby transitioning from a safe to a dangerous state. The coordination index of the economic system and water resource system was only −0.17 in 2017, and the partial development model benefited the economy but damaged the water resources. (2) The security status of 25 prefecture-level cities improved significantly, and the number of cities with status of alert or above increased from 11 to 15. However, there are apparent differences among the regions. The status has shifted to ‘north and south being better than east and west’. The water resources security status of Jining, Linyi, and Lu'an have improved, whereas Yancheng, Taizhou, Pingdingshan, and other cities showed rather poor development during 2017. (3) The correlation coefficient of the economic system was −0.154 and hindered the development of the water resources system. The correlation coefficients of the added value of the tertiary industry and the expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection was 0.699 and 0.180 respectively and played a positive role in promoting the water resources system. It is necessary to optimize and adjust the industrial structure and protect the environment. HIGHLIGHT The Lotka-Volterra symbiosis model is introduced to the paper and has good applicability in water resources security research.The Huaihe Eco-economic Belt is taken as the research area and the empirical results are conducive to promoting the development and implementation of national strategies.ArcGIS software is used to visualize the results and the dynamic change of water resources security status.

Evolution of Autopoiesis and Multicellularity in the Game of Life

Recently we introduced a model of symbiosis, Model-S, based on the evolution of seed patterns in Conway's Game of Life. In the model, the fitness of a seed pattern is measured by one-on-one competitions in the Immigration Game, a two-player variation of the Game of Life. Our previous article showed that Model-S can serve as a highly abstract, simplified model of biological life: (1) The initial seed pattern is analogous to a genome. (2) The changes as the game runs are analogous to the development of the phenome. (3) Tournament selection in Model-S is analogous to natural selection in biology. (4) The Immigration Game in Model-S is analogous to competition in biology. (5) The first three layers in Model-S are analogous to biological reproduction. (6) The fusion of seed patterns in Model-S is analogous to symbiosis. The current article takes this analogy two steps further: (7) Autopoietic structures in the Game of Life (still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships—collectively known as ashes) are analogous to cells in biology. (8) The seed patterns in the Game of Life give rise to multiple, diverse, cooperating autopoietic structures, analogous to multicellular biological life. We use the apgsearch software (Ash Pattern Generator Search), developed by Adam Goucher for the study of ashes, to analyze autopoiesis and multicellularity in Model-S. We find that the fitness of evolved seed patterns in Model-S is highly correlated with the diversity and quantity of multicellular autopoietic structures.

Industrial - agricultural symbiosis model for cassava starch production factory in Tay Ninh province

This study aims to propose an industrial-agricultural symbiosis model that applies the closed sloop eco-technical solutions for cassava starch production towards sustainable development. This study applies the AHP method to analyze nine alternatives and determines the best one based on 17 specific criteria for the typical cassava starch production plant in Tay Ninh province. The chosen model has 12 losed sloop solutions and can save about 40% groundwater, hundreds of cubic metre of water for irrigation in agriculture (to meet hundreds of hectares of crops), limit the lack of water in the dry season and water regulation from the Dau Tieng lake and reduce from 19-73% emissions from traffic,... Wastewater after Biogas is diluted in proportion for cassava is 28l wastewater/49l of clean water and the rubber tree is 8,5l of wastewater/7l of clean water and sugar-apple is 20l wastewater/20l of clean water wasto spray as a natural leaf fertilizer, limiting the use of NPK chemical fertilizers. Some indicators of wastewater after treatment show that it is suitable for use as fertilizer but suitable for nutrient development in the soil and increase nitrogen for plant development, reducing the cost of using stimulating fertilizers. In addition, production wastewater with high cyanide levels is also considered to dilute according to certain proportions as natural insecticidal drugs. These results show that industrial-agricultural symbiosis model bring great enviromental benifits for cassava starch industry and can be replicated in the future.

Symbiosis Evolution Model and Behavior of Multiple Resource Agents in the Smart Elderly Care Service Ecosystem

Population aging has become an important factor restricting China′s social and economic development. The smart health and elderly care industry has developed rapidly in the past five years. However, the service resources among various elderly service providers are relatively isolated and scattered. In other words, the core management problem in the components of the smart elderly care service ecosystem is how to deal with the relationships of interest among multiple resource agents. Thus, the main contribution of this study is to employ symbiosis theory and the logistic growth model to construct a model of the evolution of the symbiosis of multiple resource agents in the smart elderly care service ecosystem. Then, we carry out a stability analysis, and analyze the evolutionary model of two resource agents′ symbiosis under different values of interdependence coefficients. Finally, we use computer simulations to dynamically simulate the model and comparatively analyze the population density of the hospital–nursing home symbiotic relationship using real cases in China. According to the study, we find that the enterprise goal in the smart elderly care service ecosystem should be to maximize the overall value of the multiple resource agents, and the result of the symbiotic evolution between different resource agents depends on the symbiotic interdependence coefficient, while the resource agent uses different strategies under different symbiosis models. Therefore, regulation is needed to ensure the relative fairness of the distribution of value co-creation in the smart elderly care service ecosystem when the resource agent takes actions that benefit itself. Of course, when the ecosystem is in a reciprocal symbiosis model, each resource agent benefits from the activities of the other resource agents, which is ideal in reality; in other words, the best symbiosis model between the two resource agents should be the similar reciprocal symbiosis model.

Industrial Symbiosis in Insect Production—A Sustainable Eco-Efficient and Circular Business Model

Insect meal (IM) is a source of high-quality protein for aquafeed while insect oil (IO) is a source of fatty acids used in monogastric feed with identical or better performance than premium fishmeal (FM) or vegetable oils (VOs) respectively. Although insects’ ability to feed on agricultural by-products and the entire valorization of insect products (IM, IO, frass) suggest insect production is sustainable, no studies have documented its environmental impact using industrial-scale production data. The present study is the first attributional life cycle assessment (A-LCA) based on data from an industrial-scale facility implementing an innovative symbiosis production model. This A-LCA was used to (i) assess the environmental performance of the symbiosis model vs. a no-symbiosis model and (ii) compare the environmental impacts of IM and IO production vs. their respective alternatives. The results revealed that the symbiosis model introduces a meaningful change in terms of environmental footprint by reducing CO2 emissions by 80% and fossil resources depletion by 83% compared to the no-symbiosis model. The higher sustainability of the IM and IO produced using the symbiosis model was also demonstrated, as CO2 emissions were reduced by at least 55% and 83% when compared to the best FM and VOs alternatives, respectively.

Almost periodic solutions of a commensalism system with Michaelis-Menten type harvesting on time scales

In this paper, we consider an almost periodic commensal symbiosis model with nonlinear harvesting on time scales. We establish a criterion for the existence and uniformly asymptotic stability of unique positive almost periodic solution of the system. Our results show that the continuous system and discrete system can be unify well. Examples and their numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the feasibility of our main results.