Page 109 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

2 Different Aspects of Industrial Symbiosis at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery 77

At the biorefinery, most of the water and steam are supplied by the CRISTAL
UNION sugar factory. This plant owns three boreholes enabling it to supply the
other firms on the site with water from the water table. CHAMTOR and
ARD-SOLIANCE-P2G 6 have their own borehole water. Furthermore, the
ARD-SOLIANCE site supplies additional water for CHAMTOR and BIODEMO,
whilst the sugar factory supplies additional requirements of CHAMTOR. In con-
trast, CRISTANOL depends entirely on the sugar plant for its supplies.
Once extracted, the borehole water is partially distilled (using water softeners) or
more thoroughly distilled (via reverse osmosis). These two types of water are called
respectively distilled water and osmosis water. This water, called “processed water”
in Fig. 3.3, is used for the production of steam, for cooling towers, solubilisation
and the hydrolysis of raw materials. The different units can exchange borehole or
processed water directly.
As well as these supplies of water in liquid form, the sugar factory also supplies
the other firms with steam. However, when necessary, CHAMTOR and the sugar
factory can exchange condensed steam. Similarly, during sugar beet processing,
CRISTANOL sends condensed steam to the sugar plant to be stocked in reservoirs;
this water is turned back into steam and used between processing seasons.
However, water exchanges are not limited to the sugar factory. The CHAMTOR
production unit supplies the BIODEMO demonstrator with osmosis water and the
ARD-SOLIANCE-P2G units with steam and osmosis water.
Water is also present in the biomass used for processing, such as wheat and
above all sugar beet. During sugar beet processing, the raw juice is concentrated
and the evaporated water is recovered. This is called “condensed water.” During
sugar beet processing, the sugar plant sends this condensed water to CRISTANOL
to be used as the fermentation medium for the production of ethanol. Furthermore,
the vinasse produced by CRISTANOL during ethanol distillation is recovered by
the sugar factory.
This optimisation of water use in the biorefinery has resulted in significant
savings. An example that illustrates this very well is the savings the sugar factory
has been able to make in borehole water used per tonne of sugar beet processed.
Similarly, the fact that the CRISTANOL production unit is attached to the
biorefinery has meant that its water consumption has been divided by ten.

2.3.3 Water Flows: Waste Treatment
The sugar factory plant was the first factory to be established on the Bazancourt-
Pomacle site, and these historical origins led to the CRISTAL UNION agronomic
department managing waste spraying for all the firms at the biorefinery.
The different types of waste from the sugar factory, CHAMTOR,
ARD/SOLIANCE/BIODEMO and P2G are collected in different reservoirs in the
sugar plant and then sprayed on local agricultural land in line with good agricultural
practice. Waste from CRISTANOL is collected in a reservoir belonging to the

6
Futurol, second generation Procethol.