Page 126 - Biorefinery 2030

94 4 Prospects for the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery Between Now and 2030

– Multinational chemical groups that had strong internal biotechnology
competences lost these skills when the groups were split into “chemical” and
“pharmaceutical” divisions. They face two alternatives:

(a) Redevelop their internal competences,
(b) Cooperate with existing platforms in consortia, R&D projects and joint
ventures.

In fact, this notion of “moving downstream” (from the point of view of the
biorefinery) can also be understood as a move upstream if we consider the trend as a
“demand” on behalf of downstream firms.
As this concurrence between supply and demand will require support, the Reims
and Epernay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, local development agencies
(INVEST IN REIMS) and local industrial and financial players are of course
encouraged to promote these new opportunities directly.
The firms present at Bazancourt-Pomacle are at the same time sensitive to the
“quality” and profile of the potential candidates. They need to ensure that the new
firms are homogenous and compatible with those already on site. They may indeed
themselves be the first candidates to move downstream.

4.3 The Move Downstream by Industrials and Cooperatives

The move downstream by the industrial firms and cooperatives present at the
Bazancourt-Pomacle biorefinery is the most difficult option to implement. It is of
course not the most difficult to imagine, but doubtless the most difficult to make
credible, such would be the organisational innovation and risk-taking involved. The
“entry-cost” will be financial as much as organisational or cultural.
What are the possibilities?
One of these would be to distribute themselves a product of the biorefinery or at
least to create the conditions for active distribution in partnership with other
players, which would create the risk of closing off outlets through traditional
clients, a “classic” risk of such an approach. One example of a risky option
would be to distribute biofuels such as E85 (85 % ethanol) by investing in a genuine
distribution strategy by developing networks in partnership with “flexfuel” vehicle
manufacturers. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study of this type of
strategy has been published, although such a possibility may have been studied
confidentially but rejected by investors.
Other similar possibilities have been proposed and doubtless involve the same
problems, but on a lesser scale: the creation of a department or company to provide
local housing and businesses with heating if industrial symbiosis is further devel-
oped in the field of energy production.
All of these possibilities proposed for the next 15 years at the Bazancourt-
Pomacle biorefinery can be represented in Fig. 4.3