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2 Different Aspects of Industrial Symbiosis at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery 73

Fig. 3.2 Flows of products, by-products and services between firms (It should be noted that the
dehydration unit backs onto the sugar factory and operates outside the sugar production period) at
the Bazancourt-Pomacle biorefinery, Champagne-Ardenne

the biorefinery’s different actors (c.f. Fig. 3.2), creating a symbiosis of “grey
matter.” Furthermore, this research activity has led to the creation of new
companies that also participate in the symbiotic exchanges on the site.
In 1994 SOLIANCE, a firm specialising in natural active ingredients for the
cosmetics industry was set up to exploit the results of research carried out by ARD.
This ARD subsidiary, 99 % owned by the R&D centre until 2014, has recently been
taken over by GIVAUDAN, a Swiss firm working in the perfume and fragrance
industry. ARD’s research has also spawned other projects such as BIODEMO.
BIODEMO is an industrial demonstrator, with a production capacity of 2000 tonnes
per year. ARD owns 50 % of its capital. The creation of BIODEMO resulted from
the launch of the firm BIOAMBER (of which ARD also owns one half). Set up in
2008, BIOAMBER was the fruit of research by ARD in partnership with DNP
Green Technology. BIOAMBER produces plant-sourced succinic acid through the
fermentation of glucose or sugar. After the laboratory research stage, a new
technology needs to be tested in a demonstrator, before industrial scale production
can be envisaged. Faced with this necessity, ARD built BIODEMO in 2009. The
location of the BIODEMO unit was designed to optimise the supply of
BIOAMBER with its raw material, glucose, from the company CHAMTOR. This
location also makes it possible for CHAMTOR staff to carry out maintenance on
the unit. Finally, like the other units at the biorefinery, BIODEMO receives supplies
of water and steam from the sugar factory and its waste is processed by the same
plant. BIOAMBER is now ready to move on to the industrial production stage, and
its place will soon be taken by another new, innovative company: Global
Bioe ´nergies.