Page 119 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

2 Recent Developments: 2014, a Turning Point? 87

(HA), an anti-aging skin product. At the time of the sale, its turnover was around
21 million euros per year, and it employed 77 staff.
The company’s success is based on biotechnologies, process engineering, intel-
lectual property, its forward-looking and leadership qualities and its contribution to
industrial symbiosis at the biorefinery.
Its sale to the GIVAUDAN group, a Swiss company specialising in the develop-
ment and sales of innovative perfumes and fragrances, is a perfect illustration of one
of the mechanisms of an innovation platform. To ensure its global-scale industrial
and commercial development, SOLIANCE needs significant growth. Therefore,
applying their “right of first refusal” if not their ownership rights in this precise
case, the shareholders (primarily ARD, together with the cooperatives) judged that
an effective global strategy for SOLIANCE could more easily be developed by a
large outside group. In view of this, the decision to sell the society was a
logical one.
The sale is thus both proof of the success of SOLIANCE, but above all, for our
5
purposes, an indicator of the success of the innovation platform.
An additional, by no means negligible factor is the fact that GIVAUDAN will
continue to develop SOLIANCE at its original site and will subcontract part of its
R&D to ARD. This is also evidence of the value attached to the industrial symbiosis
at Bazancourt-Pomacle as presented above in Chap. 3, particularly via its
demonstrators. 6

2.2 ARD’s BIODEMO Demonstrator

ARD’s BIODEMO demonstrator is one of four or five demonstrators in Europe, and
the only one of its size (production capacity of 2000 tonnes per year, fermenters
3
between 100 l and 200 m ). It provides evidence that a demonstration platform can
be a success. BIODEMO was set up by ARD in 2005 at a cost of 22 million euros,
20 % of which was contributed by the local authorities (region and de ´partement)
and the ERDF to fulfil the requirements of the BIOAMBER project. Its aim was to
respond to the problems caused by the fact that a white technology discovery made
in a laboratory may well not produce the theoretical yield estimated in the labora-
tory when it is replicated on an industrial scale, because there are so many obstacles
to overcome. These include the appearance of inhibiters, fermentation instability,
the behaviour of yeast and bacteria in different thermo-physical conditions, wash-
ing and integrity problems in sequential processes and the difficulties of moving to
continuous flow.
Bio-Amber SAS was initially a joint venture between ARD and a North-
American firm, DNP Green Technology. It was the first company in the world to

5
Earlier ARD successes are also significant, and should not be ignored. They are however
confidential in nature and subject to contracts between private partners, and so cannot be
discussed here.
6
ARD: press release of 3 June 2014.