Energy-saving and carbon emission reduction effect of urban-industrial symbiosis implementation with feasibility analysis in the city

It is important to promote energy saving and resource conservation in cities to promote sustainable development. Urban-industrial symbiosis (UIS) strategy is one of the effective ways to reduce resource consumption and carbon emission in the city. However, rather few studies focusing on both the cost benefit of waste treatment optimization and the heat loss of the energy network optimization in the UIS system. In this study, a typical industrial city Shenyang was selected, and the proposed UIS system included an optimized waste treatment system and industrial system. The results indicate that (1) Steam transportation limited the energy saving effects of the UIS system and economic factor played a key role in the waste treatment method transition. The investment payback time of change the MSW treatment method from landfill to waste power generation and to steam generation was 7.7 years and 11.1 years, respectively. (2) Through UIS implementation, Shenyang city could recover 8.05 × 10⁶ GJ of energy from UIS system and reduce the carbon emission by 1.3%. This study provides quantitative analysis to understand the energy savings and emissions reduction potential of UIS practices, and critical insights into the feasibility of its application in the cities of developing countries.