Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park is an industrial symbiosis network located in Kalundborg, Denmark, in which companies in the region collaborate to use each other's by-products and otherwise share resources. The Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park is the first full realization of industrial symbiosis. The collaboration and its environmental implications arose unintentionally through private initiatives, as opposed to government planning, making it a model for private planning of eco-industrial parks. At the center of the exchange network is the Asnæs Power Station, a 1500 MW coal-fired power plant, which has material and energy links with the community and several other companies. Surplus heat from this power plant is used to heat 3500 local homes in addition to a nearby fish farm, whose sludge is then sold as a fertilizer. Steam from the power plant is sold to Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical and enzyme manufacturer, in addition to Statoil oil refinery. This reuse of heat reduces the amount thermal pollution discharged to a nearby fjord. Additionally, a by-product from the power plant's sulfur dioxide scrubber contains gypsum, which is sold to a wallboard manufacturer. Almost all of the manufacturer's gypsum needs are met this way, which reduces the amount of open-pit mining needed. Furthermore, fly ash and clinker from the power plant is used for road building and cement production. These exchanges of waste, water and materials have greatly increased environmental and economic efficiency, as well as created other less tangible benefits for these actors, including sharing of personnel, equipment, and information.
History The Kalundborg Industrial Park was not originally planned for industrial symbiosis. Its current state of waste heat and materials sharing developed over a period of 20 years. Early sharing at Kalundborg tended to involve the sale of waste products without significant pretreatment. Each further link in the system was negotiated as an independent business deal, and was established only if it was expected to be economically beneficial. The park began in 1959 with the start up of the Asnæs Power Station. The first episode of sharing between two entities was in 1972 when Gyproc, a plaster-board manufacturing plant, established a pipeline to supply gas from Tidewater Oil Company. In 1981 the Kalundborg municipality completed a district heating distribution network within the city of Kalundborg, which utilized waste heat from the power plant. Since then, the facilities in Kalundborg have been expanding, and have been sharing a variety of materials and waste products, some for the purpose of industrial symbiosis and some out of necessity, for example, freshwater scarcity in the area has led to water reuse schemes. In particular, 700,000 cubic meters per year of cooling water is piped from Statoil to Asnaes. A timeline of the creation of the industrial park:
1959 The Asnæs Power Station was started up 1961 Tidewater Oil Company constructed a pipeline from Lake Tissø to provide water for its operation 1963 Tidewater Oil Company's oil refinery is taken over by Esso 1972 Gyproc establishes plaster-board manufacturing plant. A pipeline from the refinery to the Gyproc facility is constructed to supply excess refinery gas 1973 The Asnæs Power Station is expanded. A connection is built to the Lake Tissø-Statoil pipeline 1976 Novo Nordisk starts delivering biological sludge to neighboring farms 1979 Asnæs Power Station starts supplying fly ash to cement manufacturers in northern Denmark 1981 the Kalundborg municipality completes a district heating distribution network within the city that utilizes waste heat from the power plant 1982 Novo Nordisk and the Statoil refinery complete construction of steam supply pipelines from the power plant. By purchasing process steam from the power plant, the companies are able to shut down inefficient steam boilers 1987 The Statoil refinery completes a pipeline to supply its effluent cooling water to the power plant for use as raw boiler feed water. 1989 The power plant starts using waste heat from its salt cooling water to produce trout and turbot at its local fish farm 1989 Novo Nordisk enters into agreement with Kalundborg municipality, the power plant, and the refinery to connect to the water supply grid from Lake Tissø 1990 The Statoil refinery completes construction of a sulphur recovery plant. The recovered sulphur is sold as raw material to a sulfuric acid manufacturer in Fredericia 1991 The Statoil refinery commissions the building of a pipeline to supply biologically treated refinery effluent water to the power plant for cleaning purposes, and for fly ash stabilization 1992 The Statoil refinery commissions the building of a pipeline to supply flare gas to the power plant as a supplementary fuel 1993 The power plant completes a stack flue gas desulfurization project. The resulting calcium sulphate is sold to Gyproc, where it replaces imported natural gypsum
The Symbiosis The relationships among the firms comprising the Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park form an industrial symbiosis. Generally speaking, the actors involved in the symbiosis at Kalundborg exchange material wastes, energy, water, and information. The Kalundborg network involves a number of actors, including a power station, two big energy firms, a plaster board company, and a soil remediation company. Other actors include farmers, recycling facilities, and fish factories that use some of the material flows. Kalundborg Municipality Deprecated link archived 2013-07-01 at archive.today plays an active role. Additionally, other actors, such as Novoren, a recycling and urban land field firm, are formally part of the network but do not contribute tangibly in the exchange. A researcher studying the evolution of the Kalundborg Symbiosis concluded that a high level of trust between the actors involved represented an essential element to collaborative success.
Partners
The Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park today includes nine private and public enterprises, some of which are some of the largest enterprises in Denmark. The enterprises are:
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