Research

My research focus on circular economy strategies, approaching the analysis of sustainability in an interdisciplinary way, and proposing a new understanding of social complexity using tools from industrial ecology, econometrics, industrial metabolism, applied sciences and system dynamics.

Publications

• Morales, M.E.; Batlles-delaFuente, A.; Cortés-García, F.J.; Belmonte-Ureña, L.J., (2021) Theoretical Research on Circular Economy and Sustainability Trade-Offs and Synergies. Sustainability, 13, 11636. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111636

Circular economy (CE) and sustainability are interrelated, without being exchangeable. While sustainability tries to reconcile the management of productive resources with their increasing consumption, CE aims to make the productive process more efficient, reducing, reusing and recycling the results of the productive process as much as possible. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the systemic structure of interactions between sustainability and CE through the analysis of the existing literature from 2004 to 2021. For this purpose, a computational literature review and a content analysis of the main contributions of CE and sustainability, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were conducted. The results show that there is a positive impact of the synergy between CE strategies and certain SDGs. Specifically, the circular strategies that generate the greatest synergies have to do with preserving materials through recycling, downcycling, and the measurement of indicators or reference scenarios. This is what has led to the inclusion of these concepts in the formulation of policies and strategies, as their multidisciplinary nature allows them to have an impact on areas such as agriculture or innovation, which currently lack specific measures. Therefore, the knowledge derived from this study will contribute favorably to future decisions and actions to be considered, as there is still the potential to legislate in favor of an even more sustainable framework.

• Ghobakhloo, M., Fathib, M., Iranmanesh, M., Maroufkhani, P., .Morales, M.E., (2021) Industry 4.0 ten years on: A bibliometric and systematic review of concepts, sustainability value drivers, and success determinants. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol.302, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127052

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, and the underlying digital transformation, is a cutting-edge research topic across various disciplines. Industry 4.0 literature is growing exponentially, overexpanding the current understanding of the digital industrial revolution through thousands of academic publications. This unprecedented growth calls for a systematic review of the concept, scope, definition, and functionality of Industry 4.0. Such systematic review should address the existing ambiguities and deliver a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date overview of this phenomenon, including the possible implications for sustainability. Consistently, the present study carried out a systematic literature review of related articles, published online within the Industry 4.0 discipline until November 2020. The systematic literature review identified 745 eligible articles and applied extensive qualitative and quantitative data analysis methodically. The study provides a descriptive assessment of eligible articles’ properties and offers a unified conceptualization of Industry 4.0 and the underlying building blocks. The study explains how the implications of Industry 4.0 for value creation expand beyond the manufacturing industry. The study further describes the sustainability value drivers of the fourth industrial revolution and identifies the conditions on which digital industrial transformation success lays. Overall, findings reveal that Industry 4.0 transformation could address pressing issues of sustainable development goals, particularly concerning the manufacturing-economic development. The study also draws on the findings and offers important theoretical and practical implications, highlights the existing gaps within the literature, and discusses the possible future research directions.

• Morales, M.E., Lhuillery, S., (2021) Modelling Circularity in Bio-based Economy Through Territorial System Dynamics. pp. 153- 157. 2021 IEEE EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT SUMMIT CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS. https://doi.org/10.1109/E-TEMS51171.2021.9524890

We deploy territorial system dynamics as a methodology to analyze stock and flow diagrams (SFD), identify the circularity in the value chain management of bioeconomy, the strengths and limits of circular economy incorporating symbiotic links between multi-products supply chain. Complex systems theory, supply chain management and the geographic economy constitute the frameworks conceptualizing the closed loops supply chain management of industrial symbiosis. Our outcomes draw up three scenarios proposing simulations for 2027, which are able to integrate the complexity of multiproducts and by-products allocation (sugar green juice, low quality syrup, CO2, and stillage) in the model. The strategic decisions engaged in the Scenario 2 trigger a less resilient industrial network in comparison with baseline scenario 1, standing out the lack of resilience in the biorefinery platform to an exogenous tension like climate change resulting in extreme periods of rain or drought. Scenario 2 results from a decrease in sugar beet production by 5%, in sugar beet production will trigger a fall of almost 50% on sugar production by 2027 in comparison with the baseline scenario. Furthermore, scenario 3 (COVID-19) shows strong negative effects just after 2020 crisis for agro-industrial ecosystems in cities, but they can maintain value chain functionality which is not the case for climate change effects in scenario 2, entailing a faster network recovery that in some extent can be explained on the bases of the value chain circularity of industrial symbiosis.

• Morales, M.E., (2020) La symbiose industrielle et urbaine, une stratégie innovante pour la bioéconomie : le cas de la bioraffinerie de Bazancourt-Pomacle. IMMOBILIER DURABLE de la ville d’aujourd’hui à la cité de demain. Actes de la 1ʳᵉ journée d’étude du laboratoire ESPI Réflexions et Recherches (ESPI2R) Paris, 3 juin 2019 sous la direction de Cathy Veil, Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne et Anne-Catherine Chardon. ISBN 9782957474905

La symbiose industrielle et urbaine (SIU) se présente comme une stratégie interentreprise s’inscrivant dans une logique d’allocation efficiente et résiliente de ressources du système d’approvisionnement. Dans cet article, la théorie de la proximité et la méthodologie de la dynamique des systèmes territoriaux constituent le socle théorique d’analyse de la bioraffinerie. À travers cette méthodologie, en utilisant des boucles de rétroaction causale du process d’innovation de la betterave sucrière, sont identifiés les leviers et les obstacles institutionnels, les acteurs et l’évolution de leurs interactions dans un écosystème agroindustriel complexe. Ainsi, l’article présente trois scénarios (référence, évolution du portefeuille de valorisation de la betterave sucrière et diminution de la production de betterave sucrière) afin de mieux comprendre la valorisation betteravière (jus vert, sirop de basse pureté, CO₂ et vinasse). Cette dernière englobe les stratégies du développement durable en vue d’une amélioration de la performance de l’écosystème agro-industriel de la plateforme de Bazancourt-Pomacle (PBP). Cela confère un avantage comparatif à une échelle d’analyse micro par rapport à la prévision statistique descriptive, dû à l’intégration de la structure institutionnelle pour opérationnaliser la fonctionnalité et la rationalité causale et ainsi répondre aux enjeux de l’action collective. Nous partons du postulat selon lequel la PBP remplit toutes les conditions d’une SIU, ce qui permet d’expliquer le rôle de l’analyse géographique, en identifiant les boucles qui renforcent ou régulent la durabilité sous-jacente d’une région dotée d’une forte tradition agricole et agro-industrielle. Cette étude vise à inciter les décideurs à arbitrer, en matière de valorisation de la biomasse, avec une rationalité systémique afin de mettre en place des dispositifs multisectoriels.

• Abad-Segura, E., Morales, M.E., Cortés-García F.J., Belmonte-Ureña, L.J., (2020). Industrial Processes Management for a Sustainable Society: Global Research Analysis, Processes, 8, 631; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8050631

Few decades ago, the development of the industrial sector was disconnected from society’s protection. Negative e ects awareness emerges from the current industrial processes through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering the causal implications to build up a more sustainable society. The aim of this study is to analyze the state of the art in industrial processes management to obtain positive and sustainable e ects on society. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of 1911 articles was set up during the 1988–2019 period, bringing up the authors’ productivity indicators in the scientific field, that is, journals, authors, research institutions, and countries. We have identified environmental management; the impact assessments of industrial processes on the environment and its relation with a more sustainable society; as well as the study of the sustainable management of water resources as the related axes in the study of environmental protection with political, economic, and educational approaches. The growing trend of world scientific publications let us observe the relevance of industrial processes management in the implementation of e cient models to achieve sustainable societies This research contributes to the academic, scientific, and social debate on decision-making both in public and private institutions, and in multidisciplinary groups.

• Morales, M.E., Industrial symbiosis, a circular bioeconomy strategy. The sugar beet case study at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Platform, 2020, Paradigms, Models, Scenarios and Practices for Strong Sustainability, Editions Oeconomia, ISBN: 979-10-92495-13-3

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is presented as an inter-firm innovation with the aim of biophysical flows optimization but also structural sustainability. In this paper, we introduce geographical system dynamics as the methodology used to analyse the Biorefinery using Stock and Flow Diagrams (SFD) to identify the actors/institutions and networks that represent the bottleneck of the technological and innovation change in the local Bioeconomy ecosystem. The institutional adaptive theory, the complex systems theory and the spatial economy encompass the theoretical framework that conceptualizes industrial symbiosis in the ground of circular bioeconomy, where the territorial system dynamics methodology helps to identify the innovation drivers. This methodology draws up three scenarios (baseline, change in the sugar-beet outcome mix and decrease in sugar-beet productive efficiency) to illustrate the by-products allocation (sugar green juice, low quality syrup, CO2 and stillage) encompassing sustainable strategies that looks forward the enhancement of the agro-industrial ecosystem performance. We assume that Bazancourt-Pomacle platform holds the conditions to be considered an industrial symbiosis, in the sought of providing a better understanding of the stakeholder's causal effects and the complexity of their influence in the local industry regarding the sugar-beet valorisation alternatives.

• Morales, M.E., Diemer, A., Industrial Symbiosis Dynamics, a Strategy to Accomplish Complex Analysis: The Dunkirk Case Study, Sustainability 2019, 11(7), 1971; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11071971

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is presented as an inter-firm organizational strategy with the aim of social innovation that targets material and energy flow optimization but also structural sustainability. In this paper, we present geographical proximity as the theoretical framework used to analyse industrial symbiosis through a methodology based on System Dynamics and the underpinning use of Causal Loop Diagrams, aiming to identify the main drivers and hindrances that reinforce or regulate the industrial symbiosis’s sustainability. The understanding of industrial symbiosis is embedded in a theoretical framework that conceptualizes industry as a complex ecosystem in which proximity analysis and stakeholder theory are determinant, giving this methodology a comparative advantage over descriptive statistical forecasting, because it is able to integrate social causal rationality when forecasting attractiveness in a region or individual firm’s potential. A successful industrial symbiosis lasts only if it is able to address collective action problems. The stakeholders’ influence then becomes essential to the complex understanding of this institution, because by shaping individual behaviour in a social context, industrial symbiosis provides a degree of coordination and cooperation in order to overcome social dilemmas for actors who cannot achieve their own goals alone. The proposed narrative encourages us to draw up scenarios, integrating variables from different motivational value dimensions: efficiency, resilience, cooperation and proximity in the industrial symbiosis. We use the Dunkirk case study to explain the role of geographical systems analysis, identifying loops that reinforce or regulate the sustainability of industrial symbiosis and identifying three leverage points: “Training, workshop and education programs for managers and directors,” “Industrial symbiosis governance” and “Agreements in waste regulation conflicts.” The social dynamics aims for the consolidation of the network, through stakeholder interaction and explains the local success and failure of every industrial symbiosis through a system dynamics analysis.

• T.M. Pinto, J., Morales, M.E., Fedoruk, M., Kovaleva, M., Arnaud, D., 2019, "Servitization in Support of Sustainable Cities; What are steel's contributions and challenges? Journal of Sustainability, 11, 855, https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030855

In the pursuit of eco-efficiency, resilience, and self-sufficiency, sustainable cities focus on long-term environmental goals instead of only short-term economic ones. To do so, many of them rely on servitization, the practice of replacing tangible solutions for intangible ones. Considering steel’s wide range of applications and its pervasive presence, this article’s goal was twofold: Not only to understand how servitization helps sustainable cities, but also the contributions and challenges of the steel present in service-providing. To do so, the criteria of sustainable urban metabolism and circles of sustainability were used to analyze three case studies of servitization: energy, housing, and mobility. The results showed that servitization can provide significant benefits to sustainable cities, while also being able to substantially alter the supply-side dynamics of steelmaking by affecting, most notably, demand. This brought to light how important it is for steelmakers to pay close attention to the service-providing initiatives that may concern their clients and products. Nevertheless, further research is necessary to fully understand all of the effects that servitization can have on all of the commodities involved in its implementation.

• Morales, M.E., Diemer, A., Cervantes, G., Carrillo-Gonzalez, G., 2019. “By-product Synergy” changes in the industrial symbiosis dynamics at the Altamira-Tampico Industrial Corridor: 20 Years of Industrial Ecology in Mexico. Journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling 140 (2019) pp.235-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.09.026

The Industrial symbiosis emergence constitute a complex and dynamic process that we set in four different phases in this paper: Emergence, Regional efficiency, Regional learning, and Sustainable Industrial District. Embedded in a theoretical framework concerning the industrial symbiosis dynamic, this paper triggers a historical sequence of consequences in the industrial ecosystem evolution encompassing micro and macro elements, which also depends upon the individual actors’ intervention in the network. The industrial symbiosis at Altamira is depicted here as a centralized and ancillary industrial symbiosis embedding a socio-technical and environmental model, one of the most complete biophysical, social, and economic symbiotic case studies in Latin America. The further historical analysis uses the number of actors composing the industrial network and the amount of material and energy exchange flows as a proxy for the success of the Altamira By-Products Industrial Symbiosis as a way to approach sustainability in the industrial ecosystem and attractiveness in the territory. According to the analysis of those proxies in Altamira, the actors involved in the network decrease at the Regional efficiency stage, with the highest synergies rate. The Regional learning phase follows the dynamic through an eco-innovative ecosystem strategy, encompassing small and medium size firms in the region, as the mechanisms for improving learning and innovation, decreasing transaction costs and boosting sustainability.

• Coehlo, P., Morales, M., Diemer, A.; 2017, Analyzing Symbiotic Relationships in Sustainable Cities - A framework., European Union and Sustainable Development: Challenge and Prospects, Editorial Oeconomia.

The paper offers various investigations to undestand how a city becomes a sustainable city. We make the following hypothesis: a city becomes more and more sustainable as it becomes more and more able to develop and improve symbiotic relationships. In nature, a symbiotic relationship is defined as any relationship between different species where both species benefit. Thus, a symbiotic city has "mutually beneficial relationships with its macro and micro ecosystems. It produces ecosystem services that are equal or greater than its net use of those services. The transition to a symbiotic city requires a cultural and economic recognition that we are embedded in and dependent upon our ecosystems. A symbiotic city enhances the natural environment, sustainable economic activity and quality of life". (Future Proofing Cities Working Group, 2012). To challenge this idea, we attempt to understand the complexity of symbiotic relationships from an interdisciplinary perspective. We then propose methods and materials (system dynamics, material flow analysis and circles of sustainability) to improve our model. Finally, we present some examples of European cities and discuss the challenges and prospects of that social innovation.

• Morales, M., Kovaleva, M., Fedoruk, M., Torres, J.; 2017, Servitization tendency at Sustainable cities, the success stories of housing, energy and mobility sectors., European Union and Sustainable Development: Challenge and Prospects, Editorial Oeconomia

The paper aims to understand the potential contribution that servitization would provide to Sustainable Cities by addressing how those three sectors (housing, energy and mobility) could get some advantages from reducing the needs from material acquisition by customers, or by replacing the product's presence altogether, evaluated by two different methods: the metabolism of sustainable cities and the circles of sustainability, which bring the quantitative and qualitative data into the assesment equation. Service-providing practices are highlightened and analyzed as an alternative on which sustainable cities could improve resource and energy management. This is just a theoretical outlook of those 3 sectors after bibliographic analysis of different case studies, furthermore an additional research is needed to determine the qualitative and quantitative effects of the dynamic and systemic interrelations over those three areas in a city, in order to identify what are the drivers and the stakeholders taking part in the equation.

• Diemer, A., Morales, M.; 2016, L’écologie industrielle et territoriale peut-elle s’affirmer comme un véritable modèle de développement durable pour les pays du Sud ? Revue francophone du Développement Durable, vol: 4 pp: 52-71.

Le champ de l'écologie industrielle et territoriale, longtemps associé aux expériences menées dans les pays développés, ouvre de nouvelles perspectives d'industrialisation pour les pays du Sud. Nous insistons plus précisément sur une forme particulière d'écologie industrielle et territoriale (EIT), la symbiose industrielle. Les symbioses industrielles sont porteuses de bénéfices environnementaux, économiques et sociaux pour les entreprises impliquées dans une relation de collaboration. Selon nous, elles illustrent d'une part, la nécessaire interdépendance entre plusieurs processus de production de différentes firmes et de bouclages des flux d'énergie et de matière à mettre en oeuvre à l’intérieur d'une zone d'activité industrielle territorialisée et d'autre part, l'avènement d'un modèle de durabilité forte en termes de développement socio-économique.

• Morales, M., Diemer, A., 2016, L’écologie industrielle et territoriale un modèle de durabilité forte., Editions universitaires européennes, Saarbrûckeb, Allemagne. ISBN: 978-3-639-54647-7

On part d'un modèle d'écologie industrielle et territoriale pour en faire une réelle opportunité en matière de développement territoriale. Nous insistons plus précisément sur une forme particulière d'écologie industrielle et territoriale (EIT), comme modèle de durabilité forte centré sur la symbiose industrielle. Selon nous, elles illustrent d'une part, la nécessaire interdépendance entre plusieurs processus de production de différents firmes et le bouclage des flux d'énergie et de matière à mettre en oeuvre à l'intérieur d'une zone d'activité industrielle territorialisée et d'autre part, l'avènement d'un modèle de durabilité forte en termes de développement socio-économique. L'ouvrage est structuré sur un cadre méthodologique d'interdisciplinarité systémique et complexe de l'étude d'une symbiose pour délimiter les contours du modèle de durabilité forte. Ce modèle s'appuie sur quatre piliers: l'éco-efficience, la coopération, la proximité et la résilience présentée comme la capacité de la symbiose à s'adapter aux chocs externes et internes en la construction des différents indicateurs et outils d'évaluation avec un portée multidimensionnelle.

• V. Vázquez, P., Morales, M.E., Navarro, M., 2016, "Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) hybrid Hermosa indeterminate study of yield and fruit quality under greenhouse conditions responding at organic manure application" African Journal of Agricultural Research,, Vol. 11 (3). pp.161-170. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajar2014.9164

The organics alternatives in the vegetables production are a strategy to produce free chemical polluted foods that endanger human health. In the present study, the Hermosa indeterminate tomato variety was used and the following treatments were evaluated in a completely randomized design: Compost 2 tons/ha + VAM and BAC + Compost tea 50% (Treatment 1), Compost 4 tons/ha + VAM and BAC + Compost tea 50% (Treatment 2), Compost 6 tons/ha + VAM and BAC + Compost tea 50% (Treatment 3), VAM and BAC + Compost tea 50% (Treatment 4) and Absolute control (Treatment 5). The results indicate that Treatment 3 (Compost 6 ton/ha + VAM and BAC + Compost tea 50%) had the highest plant height at 120 days after planting (414.07 cm). Regarding the number of fruits per plant, fruit weight per experimental unit, fruit weight per m² and fruit weight per plant, no significant differences were identified. The five treatments show no significant difference in polar and equatorial diameter of the fruit weight, fruit density and unit volume. For five treatments evaluated, the pH, Brix and fruit firmness variables do not show significant difference.

Works in Progress

• The relationship between eco-efficiency and resilience in the industrial symbiosis: A comprehensive flow analysis

submitted to Technovation Journal.

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a technical and business strategy to minimize cost and improve environmental performance which relies on synergic exchanges and sharing business strategy in the field of industrial ecology, and which aims to enhance industrial performance and viability through comprehensive consideration of energy and material flows. Resilience can be seen as a mechanism to move beyond individual efficiency and seek for a collective viability. To the extent that exchanges of wastes between firms in industrial symbiosis leads to a situation where wastes must be produced and allocated, the environmental benefits become controversial. The use and adoption of symbiotic practices based only on market allocation criteria suggest that symbiosis can lead to an undue reliance on waste production. We explore new insights from the industrial ecology (IE) framework by integrating resilience into the supply chain complexity. Our results confirm that an optimal trade-off between efficiency and resilience exists, defined by an optimal redundancy level, which is able to maximize the ecosystem viability in the long period. A lack of collective resilience is observed in the Altamira Industrial Symbiosis where only 2 out of 9 firms get benefits from the symbiosis.

• Modelling Circularity in Bio-Based Economy Trough Territorial System Dynamics

submitted to Ecological Economics Journal

We deploy territorial system dynamics as a methodology to analyze meso-scale stock and flows ecosystems, allowing us identify the circularity in the value chain management of bioeconomy, the strengths and limits of circular economy incorporating symbiotic links between multi-products supply chain. . Complex systems theory, supply chain management and the geographic economy constitute the frameworks conceptualizing the closed loops supply chain management of industrial symbiosis. With the aim of setting a systemic decision-making tool for addressing collective action problems to better understand the role of sustainability and circularity in the bio-based value chains model in an industrial symbiosis framework. Our outcomes draw up three scenarios proposing simulations for 2027, which are able to integrate the complexity of multi-products and by-products allocation (sugar green juice, low quality syrup, CO₂ and stillage) in the model. Scenario 3 (COVID19) shows stronger negative effects just after 2020 crisis for agroindustrial ecosystems in cities, but they can maintain value chain functionality which is not the case for climate change effects in scenario 2, entailing a faster network recovery that in some extent can be explained on the bases of the value chain circularity of industrial symbiosis.

• Circular economy’s theoretical framework a systemic and causal understanding: lessons to learn about how different circularities are settled-down in Europe

an ongoing work to be submitted to the International Journal of Production Economics

To answer the question about the differences in understanding and social construction of the circular economy concept in sciences, looking forward to identify the drivers, causal loops, actors and leverage points within a systemic understanding in a macro scale highlighting the similarities and differences according to the country where it is studied. The word circular economy belongs to the family of semi-scientific ambiguous terms (Bourguignon, 1997). All these expressions are used to designate words whose very largely contextual meaning allows a wide range of interpretations. Overall, the definition of a word of this type poses a problem, which gives rise to reflections in the very diverse fields of philosophy, the natural sciences and sociology. This paper entails a series of semi-structured interviews addressed to circular economy scholars in Sweden, France and Lithuania. The scholars and experts are identified thanks to a systematic method coming from a bibliometric analysis in Scopus® database, where we obtained a list of 125 papers because of a first exploratory research among the scientific literature with Swedish affiliation. Then, we draw up a pre-analysis regarding the title, keywords and the abstract in that order, to isolated the papers that were out of the scope of this systemic analysis because pointed out meta-analysis or just because address merely technical issues, without regarding the institutional changes at waste conceptualization, even if indirectly.

• Systemic analysis of the closed'loop supply chain in circular economy. The controversy among technologic centralization by transnational and territorial priorities de'centralization

The Industry 5.0 approach with a systemic analysis of the closed-loop supply chain in circular economy. Regarding products and services as customizable goods to customer needs, reduce environmental impact and allow concept such as closed loops, energy self-sufficiency or emission-neutrality. Herein, the Circular Economy require the formation of new business models but also approaches such as CO2 taxation and platform-based technologies for traceability, and reusing and recycling. Some trade-offs and controversies emerge out iof this approach like the controversy among technologic centralization by transnational and territorial priorities de-centralization.