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2 Different Aspects of Industrial Symbiosis at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery 75

raw materials processed on site, sugar beet, has a high concentration of water. This
water is recovered and processed as a by-product. It is called condensed water.

2.3.1 The Importance of Water and Its Productivity
Independently of the symbiosis issue, it should first be noted that water is one of the
elements in which the most spectacular gains have been made over time, as the
Table 3.1 makes clear.
The sugar factory is legally responsible for evacuating liquid waste from the site,
and is therefore the main intermediary for the water board. An annual report has to
be provided for the water board, detailing water inputs and outputs for the
biorefinery. With the aim of improving the system constantly and of anticipating
new regulations, all water flows on the site are quantified and qualified to draw up
quantitative and qualitative reports.
This work is carried out by the ARD research centre, which collects the required
data from the different firms on the site. The work is complex and painstaking, and
all the different companies have had to been made aware of its importance.
To draw up this water use report, every water molecule is taken into account, in
other words water in the form of liquid or vapour, and also the water present in
sugar beet (which contain 75 % water), water molecules included in the composi-
tion of chemical products etc. Indeed, any water molecule entering the system is
liable to be found in outgoing water, in water for agricultural spraying, in steam
ejected into the atmosphere, or in products from the site.
Figures 3.3 and 3.4 show water flows in 2012 at the Bazancourt-Pomacle
biorefinery. These diagrams are taken from a water use report published by ARD.
To make the diagrams simpler and easier to understand, the water flows have been
divided into two categories: water flows between the companies, not including
wastewater (c.f. Fig. 3.3) and water flows associated with waste (c.f. Fig. 3.4) and
destined for spraying. It is important to note that, as mentioned above, the
biorefinery is constantly changing system, and so this view of symbiosis in 2012
is by definition different from the current situation in 2014.

2.3.2 Water Flows: Symbiosis Between Companies
Almost 50 % of water flows between the different units are in liquid form (borehole
water and processed water). Water present in raw materials and by-products
represents 27 % of these flows. Finally, the smallest proportion of water flows is
represented by steam, at 16 %. These figures do not include water flowing out of the
system.

Table 3.1 Gains in water use productivity at the Bazancourt sugar factory
Year 2000 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Litres of borehole water/Tonne of 123 32.7 21.1 33.50 58.50 7.03 0.67
sugar
Source: CRISTAL UNION