Page 106 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

74 3 Industrial Symbiosis at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery

Many products and by-products from the different players on the platform are
processed by the CRISTANOL distillery. This plant has two distinct production
lines; one line is fed by sugar beet by-products; the other operates using a
by-product of wheat. These products and by-products serve as raw materials for
the fermentation process to transform sugars (present in sugar beet or wheat) into
alcohol. Sugar beet materials (raw juice, sugar syrup etc.) are supplied by the
CRISTAL UNION sugar plant, whilst the wheat material (glucose) comes from
the mill belonging to CRISTANOL and from the company CHAMTOR after
hydrolysis of one of its by-products.
CRISTANOL also supplies by-products from its production process to other
firms present on the site. Its mill is used to produce flour. One of the outlets for this
flour is CHAMTOR. The fermentation process generates CO 2 , which is recovered
and purified by Air Liquide. This CO 2 is either supplied by Air Liquide to the food
industry or used by BIOAMBER for the production of succinic acid in the
BIODEMO industrial demonstrator. Finally, some of the alcohol produced is
used by SOLIANCE to manufacture cosmetics.
The glucose produced by CHAMTOR from wheat processing has several differ-
ent outlets. Some is bought by the cosmetics firm SOLIANCE. Secondly, the
industrial demonstrator BIODEMO was built next to the CHAMTOR plant to
simplify its supplies of glucose, the basis of bio-based chemistry and the raw
material used for the production of succinic acid. Furthermore, CHAMTOR carries
out the maintenance of the demonstration unit.
There are also flows of “grey matter” originating in the activity of the ARD
centre, which carries out all CRISTAL UNION research programmes and a number
of CHAMTOR R&D programmes, since these firms do not have such large-scale
R&D departments.
The industrial symbiosis does not only include flows of materials and research. It
takes on other, less material forms. Since 2012, there has been a staff restaurant on
the site. This inter-company establishment, founded by CRISTANOL, CRISTAL
UNION, ARD and CHAMTOR, provides a space where staff from the whole site
can meet. Finally, there are also interactions between the Humans Resources
departments of the different companies. For example, the HR directors meet
regularly to give each other feedback on staff management and possibilities for
internal staff mobility.

2.3 The Biorefinery and Water Symbiosis

It is particularly interesting to look at the case of water flows on the site. To make
savings and increase sustainable development, a significant amount of work has
been carried out on water use and on quantifying the water flows between the
different units.
This dynamic linked to water use is one of the aspects that make up the
originality of the biorefinery. It is partly conditioned by the fact that one of the