Work

Enhancing Circular Economy Efficiency Through Digital Twins

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Digital twins (DTs) are representations of real-world objects conceived to enhance the management of tangible goods. They mirror physical entities across various domains offering services such as description, diagnosis, monitoring, forecasting, and control. The rapid growth of DTs has attracted interest from stakeholders in circular economies (CEs). CEs are networks where different actors manage materials, and also information, in a non-linear manner. The primary goal of CEs is to minimize waste of resources and extraction of materials along the product chain. DTs are considered as the key digital enabler for reaching high efficiency throughout the value chain of CEs. This conceptual paper analyses the essential features characterizing CEs that need to be represented in the DT, including resource efficiency, longevity of products, circularity, and stochasticity. Each feature is analysed in terms of challenges companies face with developing and maintaining DTs for CEs.

Source: IFAC-PapersOnLine

DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.09.398

Authors: Andrea Matta, Nicla Frigerio

Institution: Politecnico di Milano

Language: English

Topic: Digital Transformation in Industry

Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Responsible consumption and production, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: European Commission