A Collaboration Platform for Enabling Industrial Symbiosis: Application of the Database Engine for Waste-to-Resource Matching

Abstract

Industrial symbiosis is realised when companies work collectively and collaboratively to establish ‘waste-to-resource’ exchanges with one another. In previous work, we presented the architecture of a collaboration platform that allows companies to simulate and analyse the economic viability of establishing such waste-to-resource exchanges in the By-product Exchange Network (BEN) model. In this paper, we describe how we enhance the platform with a database engine for waste-to-resource matching. The database engine aims to fill the gap in information and knowledge of what valuable resources can be recovered from wastes or by-products, and what wastes or by-products can be used as substitute raw materials, and what technology or processes are required to make the waste-to-resource conversion happen. The database engine is built on a graph database that models and stores data for waste-to-resource matching, and comprises a query processor for determining the matches from the stored data. The database engine is implemented as a web application and demonstrated through use cases based on paper and food wastes.