CEON: Circular Economy Ontology Network

2026-06-01

AI Summary

This study addresses the absence of a semantic interoperability framework capable of supporting cross-sector circular economy initiatives, which hinders the sharing and coordination of resource circulation information across product life cycles. To bridge this gap, the paper introduces the Circular Economy Ontology Network (CEON)—the first ontology network specifically designed for the circular economy. Employing a modular ontology engineering approach, CEON establishes a unified semantic model spanning key sectors such as construction, electronics, and textiles, integrating core concepts and relationships to enable semantic alignment and extensible data documentation. Experimental validation demonstrates that CEON effectively facilitates standardized representation and semantic interoperability of circular economy data across multiple industries, thereby filling a critical void in cross-domain semantic modeling for circular systems.

Abstract

Increasing the circularity of resource use in our society has been recognized as a path to sustainability, i.e., transitioning into a more circular economy. There are many different circular strategies to do so, such as reusing products and components, refurbishing and remanufacturing used products, or recycling left-over or used materials. To enable these strategies, it is necessary to share information at the infrastructure level and to communicate between industry sectors along the product life cycle. Enabling semantic interoperability in this information sharing and communication is therefore a key to increasing circularity. However, knowledge representation for the circular economy (CE) domain, which involves many relevant industry sectors related to product life cycles, remains challenging. To bridge this gap, we developed the Circular Economy Ontology Network (CEON) within the Onto-DESIDE project. This ontology network aims to fill gaps in CE by defining cross-sectorial concepts and to enable semantics-aware data documentation. We demonstrate CEON through cross-industry data documentation scenarios spanning construction, electronics, and textile sectors.

Problem

• circular economy
• semantic interoperability
• knowledge representation
• product life cycle
• cross-sectorial

Innovation

• Circular Economy
• Ontology Network
• Semantic Interoperability
• Cross-sectorial Knowledge Representation
• Lifecycle Data Documentation