A Framework for Industrial Symbiosis Systems for Agent-Based Simulation

The industrial symbiosis (IS) practice refers to replacing production inputs with wastes generated by other production processes, thus helping to close the loop of manufacturing processes. Companies adopting IS can reduce the amounts of wastes disposed of in landfills and primary inputs used in production processes, enhancing their production efficiency and reducing their production cost. The Agent-based modeling (ABM) approach has been recently adopted to advance the knowledge in the IS field, in particular to explore the extent to which the establishment of IS relationships can be affected by policy measures, benefit-sharing contracts, information-sharing tools, or social factors. However, the agent-based models proposed in the literature are highly different in terms of agents considered, their attributes, possible actions, and decisional rules. In particular, these models might result far from the real world, in terms of how the agents are modeled, as well as on the actions that they can undertake. The aim of this paper is to provide a general framework on how to model IS systems with ABM in a comprehensive way. The paper provides a literature review on IS aimed at identifying the potential agents in IS, their attributes, and their potential actions, shaped by technical, economic, and regulatory issues affecting the behavior of agents in terms of strategic management. Based on the results of the literature review, a general framework is proposed and discussed. This paper is expected to advance the knowledge on ABM for IS by providing useful suggestions to modelers and academicians.