Page 135 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

1 What Is the True Nature of the Bazancourt-Pomacle Integrated Biorefinery? 103

referred to in studies of industrial districts and clusters: economies of scale,
economies of scope and now the knowledge economy.
A. Marshall makes economies of scale, or cost reductions linked to the size of an
establishment, a central issue. They are often associated with increased
specialisation. They have been made possible by the proximity of the companies
by facilitating access to shared resources: raw materials, logistics costs and skilled
labour. They have been provided by the cooperatives, which alter the balance of
power between customers and suppliers and support increases in scale.
Economies of scope, or economies of diversification, in other words cost
reductions linked to the diversity and wealth of products and by-products, are not
cited as economies of scope but are included in the area of economies or advantages
of horizontal or vertical integration. 2 Industrial symbiosis illustrates these
economies perfectly: up to a certain point, the greater the diversity of production,
the greater the capacity to make use of “the whole plant” and the more developed
the circular economy.
Finally, the knowledge economy, the most contemporary rationale, refers to
3
what certain authors analyse as a “local system of competences,” bringing industry
together with research institutions and enabling the circulation of human capital and
knowledge: changing job or employer on the same site, collaboration on the same
projects, informal and formal interaction between members of a community. The
IEB innovation platform conforms to this notion perfectly, both in its aims and in
the way it operates as a local competence system, which, moreover, also fulfils the
principle of economies of diversification: the increasing diversity of its
competences guarantees its relevance and long-term survival.
An integrated biorefinery such as Bazancourt-Pomacle is a good illustration of
these three levels of economic rationale, but they would not fully apply to a
biorefinery that was not combined with an innovation platform.
The question remains whether the process leading to such an ecosystem can be
replicated.

1.3 Biorefinery and Ecosystem: An Unplanned Process, but One
that Did not Occur by Chance

We were unable for the purposes of this study to compare two integrated
biorefineries of similar importance. However, we can draw useful conclusions
from a comparison between two sites in the same county over the same period of
time (1900–2014) in similar regions: the aerospace sector around Toulouse and
industrial bioeconomy around Reims.

2
Maskell (2001).
3
Grossetti et al. (2006).