Industrial Ecology in the metallurgy industry The Harjavalta ... - Oulu

4.5 Kemira Harjavalta unit
The main product of the Kemira Harjavalta unit is aluminium sulfate made from sulfuric acid
and aluminium hydrate (Al(OH) 3 ). The agency of the sulfuric acid and liquid sulfur dioxide is
also part of Kemira’s business. As well, Kemira manufactures urea phosphate, and different
granulated and glasshouse fertilizers. (Heino & Koskenkari 2004, s. 25)
5 The Harjavalta industrial area as an industrial ecosystem
This section is based on the enquiry which was directed to the five firms presented in section 4,
and to city of Harjavalta. (Heino & Koskenkari 2004)
The most important advantages of the integration to the firms were environmental and recycling
advantages, image factors and marketing, and logistic advantages. The network and the better
co-operation has also been a very positive development factor. As well, safety actions improved
because of the co-operation (Heino & Koskenkari 2004, s. 25)
For the city of Harjavalta, the most important advantages of the industrial area are employment,
international dimension, intellectual capital and image because of the famous firms located there.
(Heino & Koskenkari 2004, s. 25)
The material and energy change between the firms is shown in Figure 4 (Heino & Koskenkari
2004, s. 31). Extra energy of the processes is utilized as electricity, high temperature steam or
heating energy by the process plants or by the city of Harjavalta, which utilizes the energy in
district heating.
When considering the Harjavalta industrial area as an industrial ecosystem, we take into
consideration the ecosystem principles roundput, diversity, locality and gradual change, which
are summarized in Table 2 (Korhonen 2001). Three of the four principles of Korhonen are
fullfilled in the Harjavalta Industrial Ecosystem. There are also plans and research work going on
to improve friendliness to the environment. (The grounds for this argumentation are better
expressed in the oral part of this presentation).
Table 2 Ecosystem principles in industrial ecosystems (Korhonen 2001).
Ecosystem
Roundput
Recycling of matter
Cascading energy
Diversity
Biodiversity
Diversity in species and organism
Diversity and independency in co-operation
Locality
Utilizing local resources
Respecting local natural limiting factors
Local independency, co-operation
Gradual change
Evolution using solar energy
Evolution through reproduction
Cyclical time, seasonal time
Slow time rates in the development of system diversity
Industrial system
Roundput
Recycling of mater
Cascading energy
Diversity
Diversity in actors, interdependency and
cooperation
Diversity in industrial in put, output
Locality
Utilizing local resources, wastes
Respecting local natural limiting factors
Co-operation between local actors
Gradual change
Using waste material and energy, renewable
resources
Gradual development of the system diversity