Towards a Sustainable Bioeconomy through Industrial Symbiosis: Current Situation and Perspectives

The concepts of industrial symbiosis (IS) and bioeconomy (BE) both focus on ways to reduce dependence non-renewable resources. However, these two frames reference have rarely been considered as part a joint strategy achieve sustainability. Here, we describe how they inter-operate, in well documented IS case studies, identify current synergy patterns organic by-products, their limits, promising pathways towards integrated initiatives that pursue the respective goals each framework. We first evaluated nature synergies practices, contribute Second, focused role agriculture symbioses, due its fundamental circular bioeconomy. used three main dimensions analyze our studies: emergence, governance synergies, actor serendipity. identified matter use within IS, which termed metabolic resources, biorefinery, global biorefinery. Our observations suggest with are undervalued, by internal external practitioners. conclude while combination BE can bolster sustainability, it requires dedicated implementation has yet be conceived.