[:en]

SHAREBOX project starts with a KO session at IRIS facilities

In order to migrate to the energy and resource efficient zero-waste process industry of the future, the SPIRE work programme calls for“solutions for more efficient processing and energy systems for the process industry, including industrial symbiosis”. SHAREBOX, a new research project coordinated by IRIS and funded by the EC under the H2020-SPIRE programme, will pave the way forward industrial symbiosis and will develop a secure platform for the flexible management of shared process resources.

Resource efficiency offers a major economic opportunities for the European Process Industry, both in terms of cost savings as well as opportunities to offer greener products and services. Industrial Symbiosis is the use by one company or sector of by-products, including energy, water, logistics and materials, from another. Industrial Symbiosis networks have proven successful not only diverting waste from landfill, but also contributing to the preservation of resources and moving waste up the value chain.

KickOff-Sharebox-03

An affordable and smart resource sharing platform to enhance the adoption of Industrial Symbiosis in the european industry
The approach that underpins SHAREBOX centres on logical work flow that covers from the identification of new symbiotic synergies right through optimised connections among companies and organisations in established symbiotic relationships. SHAREBOX is a 48 month research project in which 15 partners are involved from Universities, Research companies and centres, to Stakeholders and Industries, from the ceramic sector and chemical sector among others. SHAREBOX will provide, in real-time, plant operators and production managers with the information that they need  in order to effectively and confidently share resources (plant, energy, water, residues and recycled materials) with other companies in an optimum symbiotic ecosystem.

The ambition of SHAREBOX is to bring to market a secure platform that integrates analysis and optimisation tools for flexible energy use and material flow integration to enable a holistic approach for resource management in process industries, suitable both for small and large scale, and that lowers barriers and dramatically increases the mainstream adoption of Industrial Symbiosis. The final goal is to deliver an affordable, robust and reliable software, based on data mining and mathematical tools (game theory, agent-based modelling), and validated in real industrial environments. The first phase of the project will face the identification of the industrial requirements for an accurate definition of the SHAREBOX platform specifications.[:]