Building a Biorefinery Business - If it does not fit, make it fit - strategies for successful commercialization

Abstract: Due to a combination of economic challenges as well as uncertain policy conditions in the United States and the European Union, the development of (advanced) biorefineries has been slower than anticipated. This has hampered the transition to a more sustainable and less carbon-intensive economy, namely the bioeconomy. In this thesis, the technological innovation system (TIS) approach is combined with the business model (BM) framework to analyze how biorefineries have addressed commercialization challenges and system weaknesses in practice. Hereby, a business-centered perspective is taken, using case study analysis and expert interviews as major means of empirical data collection. The analysis highlights a number of key strategies that have been applied: (1) cooperation, partnerships and networks play a major role for e.g. the mobilization of resources, market formation and knowledge development and diffusion; (2) a high degree of vertical integration, especially upstream, is found to overcome feedstock related challenges (3) product and market diversification into higher values is perceived as key to overcome dependence on oil prices and policy frameworks. Furthermore, prospects for lignocellulosic biorefineries are considered low due to unfavorable economics and lack of policy incentives. In addition to the empirical contribution, the study contributes with novel insights into the role of agency and individual actors as system builders within the TIS framework. The thesis thus suggests that both actor specific activities as well as policy measures are needed to overcome system weaknesses to achieve successful commercialization of biorefineries.