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2 Different Aspects of Industrial Symbiosis at the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery 79

Box 3.1 (continued)
by biomass (Bazancourt Biomas Development Unit) consisting of two
41 MW th biomass boilers. Currently only one of the boilers is operating,
producing around 40 % of the factory’s requirements in steam. The construc-
tion of the second boiler is at the planning stage. 7
The project would considerably reduce CRISTANOL’s greenhouse gas
emissions; the two biomass boilers would reduce CO 2 emissions by 9790
tonnes (or 67 %) compared with the original gas-fuelled boilers. The reduc-
tion in CO 2 could be taken advantage of via the “Green Certificates” System;
whereby operators who emit more or less greenhouse gas during a year than
authorised can buy or sell credits on carbon trading markets.
A simulation of the internal profitability of the project compared with the
initial situation has been calculated (without taking the funding method into
account) using the data available and different hypotheses: with a 4 %
discount rate and a project life of 20 years, the project’s net present value
(NPV) would cover 48 % of the initial investment. The investment would be
recovered in approximately 12 years and the internal profitability rate would
be around 6 %. Because of the investment and the cost of management and
maintenance of a biomass installation, which for the moment are significantly
higher than those of a traditional gas-fuelled boiler, the investment will need
to be subsidised to produce steam at the same price as other energy forms.
The main subsidies that biomass projects are entitled to are awarded by
ADEME (Environment and Energy Saving Agency), local authorities
(Regional and Departmental Councils) and Europe (European Regional
Development Fund). 8

In order to continue improving the system, it is now essential to consider how it
interacts with its external environment.
One way to envisage improvements is by developing scenarios. Scenarios have
been studied internally. These demonstrate the positive impact of symbiosis in
reducing energy consumption and future directions that the site organisation might
take. All these scenarios give very positive results concerning possible optimisations.
Another possibility for the optimisation of the system would be to use low
energy use systems. This work could include integration of the needs of local
authority sites near the biorefinery site, which would strengthen links between the
biorefinery and its local environment even more.

7
Source: Report of the inspection of classified installations: Extension of the CRISTANOL site by
the installation of biomass boilers, 31 May 2011.
8
Source: Chelly M., Research Engineer, NEOMA Business School Chair in Industrial
Bioeconomy.