National Pride: 3 Mexicans Win First Place In an Innovation Contest

As the Mexican saying goes, if there is talent, you just need to support it. Three young graduates from the National Polytechnic Institute of León, Guanajuato , won first place in the Latin American innovation competition with an environmental project.

Biotechnologists Nicolás Ángeles, Lizbeth Gutiérrez and Luis Lira developed bioreactors with microalgae that reduce industrial greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, and PM2.5 and PM10 particles by up to 85 percent.

According to the IPN page , the project of the startup formed by polytechnic graduates, called Ecoscience Lab , proposes to connect a bioreactor directly to chimneys or to any source of industrial pollution and through a biological process to use these highly polluting gases as nutrients so that a group of microalgae produces oxygen and biomass, which is later used in the production of other products.

This competition was organized for all of Latin America by the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires , the Tecnológico de Massachusetts and the Sloan Latin America Office .
This contest began in March of this year and Mexicans stood out among 1,400 participating projects.

Congratulations @EcoScience_Lab , 3 young Leonese creators of the Bioreactor project, who put up the name of # León , for having obtained first place in the Accelerate category of # 100KLATAM , becoming the first Mexicans to win this award.

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– Héctor López S. (@hlsantillana)

According to the young entrepreneurs, with this biotechnological advance, industrial gaseous waste can be managed and revalued, thereby implementing a circular and sustainable business model based on three axes: the leasing of the reactor, its maintenance service and the marketing of biomass extracts to the cosmetic, food and agricultural markets.