We consider the case wherein a central large company or a
group of smaller companies in Europe forms an informal network, a
co-operative group, or a joint venture processing biomass for biodiesel.
The three scenarios under scrutiny have already been
deemed relevant from the technical, political, and economic point
of view. Next we view the social impacts caused by changing from
scenario A to scenario B or C. The reasoning related to the target
populations facing the social impacts, comes from the comparison
of value chains, as in Fig. 4, between biodiesel made from palm oil
(top) and algae (bottom). The arrows stand for flows of either the
processed product or services, materials, and energy. Each organisation
(or group of similar organisations) is represented by a rectangle.
White rectangles are for companies operating mainly in
Europe, while coloured rectangles indicate organisations operating
mainly in non-European countries. Despite the use stage being the
same in the two scenarios, the process and use of side-product
glycerine becomes a Finnish issue in scenarios B and C, while it
does not in scenario A.