Industrial sectors across Europe generate vast amounts of unused heat, waste streams, by-products and emissions that often remain isolated within individual facilities. At the same time, industries face growing pressure to reduce resource consumption, improve energy efficiency and accelerate decarbonisation without compromising competitiveness. CORALIS addresses this challenge by developing and demonstrating large-scale industrial symbiosis solutions that transform industrial parks into interconnected circular ecosystems.
Rather than viewing industries as separate entities operating independently, CORALIS promotes collaborative industrial networks where waste, energy, water and materials from one process become valuable inputs for another. Through practical demonstrations, digital tools and harmonised assessment frameworks, the project helps establish industrial symbiosis as a scalable pathway towards Europe’s circular and climate-neutral industrial future.
What is CORALIS about?
CORALIS focuses on enabling long-term industrial symbiosis initiatives across major industrial clusters in Europe.
The project develops and validates integrated approaches that allow industries to exchange resources, recover waste heat, reuse by-products and optimise material and energy flows across industrial ecosystems. By connecting companies through shared circular value chains, CORALIS aims to reduce environmental impacts while creating economic and operational benefits for participating industries.
A central aspect of the project is the development of practical frameworks that support the implementation and operation of industrial symbiosis initiatives. While the concept of industrial symbiosis has gained increasing attention in recent years, many projects struggle to move beyond isolated pilot activities due to technical, organisational and economic barriers. CORALIS addresses these barriers through coordinated demonstration activities, business models and governance structures designed to support long-term collaboration between industrial actors.
The project demonstrates its approach across several industrial parks and regional clusters, covering sectors such as steel, chemicals, minerals and manufacturing. These demonstrators explore different symbiosis opportunities, including CO₂ utilisation, waste heat recovery, wastewater reuse and material valorisation.
CORALIS also develops digital assessment and monitoring tools that allow industrial operators to evaluate environmental, technical and economic performance across symbiosis networks. Life-cycle assessment methodologies and harmonised indicators help ensure comparability between different industrial contexts while supporting investment and replication decisions.
In parallel, the project works closely with policymakers, industrial associations and regional stakeholders to develop recommendations that can accelerate industrial symbiosis uptake across Europe.
Why CORALIS matters
Heavy industry remains essential to Europe’s economy, but industrial production continues to consume large quantities of energy and raw materials while generating significant emissions and waste streams. CORALIS contributes to addressing this challenge by demonstrating how industries can collaborate more effectively to optimise resource use and reduce environmental impact.
By turning industrial by-products into valuable resources and improving cross-sector cooperation, the project helps industries move away from linear production models towards more circular and resilient systems. This not only supports climate and sustainability objectives, but also strengthens industrial competitiveness and resource security.
CORALIS ultimately demonstrates that industrial symbiosis can become a practical and scalable model for Europe’s industrial transition, helping industrial parks and regional clusters become more efficient, interconnected and sustainable.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 958337.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
