Systematic allocation of cost savings among energy systems in an eco-industrial park

To achieve sustainability goals, various strategies have been used which include symbiotic strategies with other companies. Such symbiotic strategies are based on the concept of industrial ecology (IE). IE emphasises on the importance of symbiotic interactions among various companies as it would reduce overall waste emission, raw material and energy consumption. Since symbiotic relationships normally occur among processes co-located within the same vicinity, the concept of eco-industrial parks (EIPs) emerged. Companies in an EIP engage in material and energy exchange programmes in a mutually beneficial manner, as a result of geographic proximity that facilitates cooperation among partners. As a result, the collective benefit will always be greater than the sum of individual benefits that could be achieved without establishing a symbiotic relationship in an EIP. However, since each company would have its own profit-oriented goals, it would be important to analyse the potential advantage (or disadvantage) each plant can experience when forming a partnership in EIP. Cooperative game theory provides a scientific basis for the analysis of such issues. In this respect, this work presents a cooperative game theory approach developed by Maali (2009) to fairly allocate cost savings among cooperative companies of an EIP based on their respective contributions.