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A Critical Review of Pinch Technology and Other Methodologies for Designing Industrial Symbiosis

Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Creating industrial symbiosis can improve resource efficiency by creating technically feasible and economically viable exchanges of energy, water, materials, by-products, and services among firms. Pinch technology, originally developed for process integration, systematically optimizes heat, material, water, by-product, and supply-chain exchanges, as well as emissions minimization. It is also suitable for inter-firm industrial symbiosis. However, there are some other specific methodologies that are used for the design of industrial symbiosis. They are more favored than Pinch technology. This paper reviews and compares the benefits and limitations of Pinch technology with other methodologies that have already been used in industrial parks to transform them into symbiotic systems. Sources are selected based on PRISMA. Many projects used for internal process integration showed great performance with increased efficiency. But that is rare in the design of industrial symbiosis. The analysis and results of integration support the use/reuse of energy (heat exchange), materials (mass exchange), products (goods exchange), minimization of environmental footprints, and supply chains. Pinch technology offers technical solutions for designing common exchange systems between companies that want to implement industrial symbiosis. Many updates in Pinch technology, like R-curve analysis, total site integration, and exergy-based analysis, have improved its usage. Solutions can increase flexibility. This symbiosis can have a better response to fluctuations. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm for implementing Pinch technology in industrial symbiosis design. It combines different types of Pinch technologies.
DOI: 10.21926/rpse.2603021
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7214907681
FWCI:
Cites: 119
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Related to: 10