Assessing the economic and environmental potential of a regional industrial symbiosis network in the agri-food industry: the case of a Northern Irish dairy processor as a network anchor

This thesis assesses the economic and environmental potential of a regional ISN anchored on a Northern Irish dairy processor and examines how firm-level vulnerabilities and disruptions affect the continuity of symbiotic flows. Using a mixed-method, sequential design, the study combines narrative literature review, industry interviews and site visits with Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and hybrid process-based simulation.<br><br>First, through literature review identified MFA and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) as suitable methods for capturing resource flows and disruption dynamics in ISNs.

On this basis, an ISN is designed around a dairy farm and cheese producer linked with an animal farm, anaerobic digester, beer brewery and soap producer. MFA quantified baseline and symbiotic flows, showing that the proposed network can deliver substantial disposal cost avoidance, input substitution and reductions in waste and emissions at firm and regional levels.<br><br>Second, a diagnostic decision-support framework was developed to map multi-level ISN vulnerabilities, classify disruption scenarios and select phase-based mitigation strategies (anticipation, concurrent, recovery) around symbiotic flow continuity.