Page 91 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

3 The Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery: An On-Going Success Story? 59

Box 2.7 (continued)
TRL Definition
7 System prototype demonstration in an operational environment
8 Actual system completed and qualified through test and demonstration
9 Actual system proven through successful mission operations

When applied to the Bazancourt-Pomacle site, this typology results in the
following analysis (Fig. 2.23).
This diagram highlights all the development potential existing at the biorefinery.
It also shows the chances of success for each of these projects.
Of course, beyond the level of technological readiness, other criteria need to be
taken into account to ensure the development of the projects, particularly:

– The relative prices of oil and plant raw materials, which enable us to calculate
the breakeven point for a bio-based product, on which the development of the
sector depends.
– The level of public authority subsidies, which encourage investment in new
equipment and make it worthwhile.
– The level of inducement from society, corresponding to consumer demand.

It is in the interest of the biorefinery, as at the present time, to have technologies
at different levels of maturity in order to provide the potential for further innovation
at the site and thus to maintain competitiveness.

3.2 What Are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats for the Bazancourt-Pomacle Biorefinery?
The SWOT 48 analysis is used to examine corporate strategy and to discover what
strategic options are feasible in an area of strategic activity. The model was
developed in the 1960s by four professors at the Harvard Business School: Learned,
Christensen, Andrews and Guth.
This analytical tool combines the study of the strengths and weaknesses of an
organisation, a territory or a sector, with that of the opportunities and threats
provided by its environment, in order to contribute to the definition of a develop-
ment strategy.

48
Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats