Page 12 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

Executive Summary xi

(or non-investment) decisions, the development of knowledge and competencies,
the accompaniment of start-ups, financial engineering and reputation enhancing.
More orthodox future prospects identified by the authors of the study and local
players include some very concrete possibilities both upstream and downstream of
the biorefinery. Upstream, the possibility of setting up an experimental farm nearby
(on a disused military airfield, BA 112), would provide opportunities to improve the
crop varieties needed by both the biorefinery and farmers. This farm would also
help to attract a new layer of industrial firms, suppliers, engineering and services
companies in addition to those of the IEB. Downstream, a new 60 ha industrial
estate (Sohettes Val des Bois) next to the biorefinery will enable cooperatives and
industrial firms already involved, as well as other industrials further down the value
chain, to join up with the existing biorefinery and so benefit from various synergies
and by-products.
This new phase in upstream–downstream integration is absolutely in line with
the recommendations of OECD reports that call for this “interlocking” of the green
(agricultural) and white (industrial) bioeconomies to increase their effectiveness.
An important success factor for the future will be to maintain or regenerate
certain virtues of the cooperative model (mutualising, reactivity, patience, risk-
taking).

The Integrated Biorefinery: An Economic Model for the Future
(Chap. 2)

The biorefinery, envisaged as a single industrial entity, develops all its economic
potential when different types of company are assembled on the same site to form
an industrial ecosystem, supplying each other with intermediate products, energy
and services.
The economies of scale or diversification made possible by this geographical
proximity of the different players become key factors for competitiveness. Thus,
the biorefinery can optimise its procurement and production depending on upstream
and downstream markets. This economic optimisation can be accompanied by
environmental optimisation, when it includes reductions in waste, energy consump-
tion and other inputs.
Whilst it is often suggested that the different initiatives that led to the installation
of the site and its originality were driven by a desire for the common good, good
sense and a spirit of cooperation, other factors that came into play also need to be
highlighted. These factors are linked to the environment in which the cooperatives
were operating. These factors are both external, such as the reform of the CAP and
WTO regulations, and internal, such as increasing funding requirements and strate-
gic and industrial experiments and mistakes.
This study shows that the current situation of the Bazancourt-Pomacle integrated
biorefinery is largely the result of strategies developed in response to issues of
competition, regulations, finance and organisation. Diversification, the integration
of activities both upstream and downstream in the value chain, more and more