Page 143 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

Annexes 111

operators need to be convinced that disclosure is in their individual or joint interests
if they are to agree to take part in a case study.
In this respect, the following observations can be made:

• Reluctance on the part of Biorefinery operators’ to communicate on their
activities can result in their being seen as a “black box,” which can raise all
sorts of questions. The strict minimum in terms of communication (“compli-
ance”) is often insufficient to illustrate active social responsibility.
• Partial, incomparable, one-off, non-independent case studies can only promote
confusion, conflicting assessments, unfounded interpretations and hasty
generalisations. They present non-negligible opportunity costs for industry,
investors and governments.
• As recently pointed out by a major trade association (the Confederation of
European Paper industries, CEPI), even limited case studies mapping
bio-refinery operations, physical flows, interactions with the environment and
industrial synergies, would already be a major step forward in helping external
stakeholders to understand how a biorefinery operates.

The remainder of this document will be organized as follows:

1. Definitions
2. General outline of the study
3. Methodological challenges
4. Conclusion
5. References

1. Definitions According to Task 42 of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a
Biorefinery is the site of “the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of
marketable products and energy”.
Biorefinery systems can be classified in different types. We can distinguish
between:

– Port biorefineries, which import biomass, and rural bio-refineries, which trans-
form local biomass
– Sugar-based biorefineries (wheat, sugar beet) and “oilseed” based biorefineries
(rapeseed, sunflower and palm oil)
– First generation biorefineries and second-generation biorefineries (using ligno-
cellulose processing or urban waste for example)
– Single input/output bio-refineries and multi-input biorefineries with multiple
products
– Standalone refineries versus integrated bio-refineries.