Celal-Mex

Celal-mex is dedicated to the use of waste from the agricultural industry for the production of sustainable bioproducts like cellulose, starch,bioplastics and phytochemicals.

We seek to avoid the waste of agricultural residues, to prevent their combustion, since they represent 18% of global emissions.

In Mexico, 908 thousand tons of agricultural residues are produced annually, 70% of which are cellulose, which serves as a sustainable substitute for traditional cellulose. According to INEGI, more than 3.1 million people are affected annually in Mexico by agricultural pollution, and the lack of utilization of this waste is due to the lack of interest in the research of its components, so it is easier to just discard it.
This problem is worldwide, since there are more than 11,000 million tons of this waste generated each year.

At Celal-Mex we use organic waste from pineapple production to create cellulose, starch, bioplastics, phytochemicals and pharmaceuticals as a sustainable alternative to existing and imported products. We use enzymatic hydrolysis, where we extract the raw materials from microorganisms, and we also use alkaline hydrolysis, but we have modified this technology to reduce its environmental impact by 40%.

We directly seek to improve the lives of small farmers by making use of the organic residues of each harvest.

In this case, they are people from the south of Mexico (Veracruz), who grow pineapples and have to pay for a poor and expensive organic waste collection service for them. In the worst case, they cannot afford it and leave their organic waste near their crops or in nature, and this causes environmental pollution.
When these wastes are placed near the crops, they damage them and this affects the sale of future pineapples.
First, we will buy the organic waste from the farmers, which will give an added value to the waste, and will avoid three things, an expense for them not to hire a collection service, environmental pollution and damage to future crops. It will also serve as an extra income for them. In the case of pineapple, we propose to buy a ton of pineapple leaves at 250 Mexican pesos to produce sustainable cellulose.

Skills:

Our CEO has more than 4 years of experience in entrepreneurship, is an expert in selling business ideas, and has given workshops on it. As a team we have been advised by financiers and accountants to be able to make financial projections on our products. We are also good at leading research and product development projects.

Background:
All 3 members are students in biotechnology and we have developed several products from agricultural residues, we also have experience in developing and designing extraction processes, to minimize environmental impact. So we are ready to develop new processes and products from pineapple production residues, as demanded by the market.

Experiences:
We have been part of associations that promote social entrepreneurship, such as Enactus, and research, such as El Institute for Obesity and research from Tec de Monterrey and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
We know the industries that require the products we offer, since we have had interviews and worked with them, and we have also sent them our product for testing.
Talking about how to sell the business idea to people, we have participated in more than 10 national competitions during 2021 and 2022 ,and we have won the following:
3rd place nationally in Inc Prototype 2021 in Monterrey, Mexico.
2nd place nationally in the enactus 2022 National Competition in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Top 100 Latin American finalists at Jump Chile
1st place nationally in the UNITEC Award for best technological and social innovation venture in Mexico City.
We were selected as one of the 20 best startups in Mexico by Inc Mty and they gave us an exhibition booth at their event in November 2022

We have conducted several interviews with small farmers and entrepreneurs in the area to determine the needs described in the previous question, we have also made visits to the Mexican pineapple crops to observe the reality of the need.

We are currently working  with 3 farmers in Veracruz, Mexico with whom we have reached an agreement to buy their pineapple production residues, like pineapple stems and leaves,  an agreed a price. We are also working directly with 4 potential clients, two of them in Nuevo Leon, Mexico for the sale of cellulose from pineapple leaves, and the other two in the Estado de Mexico, Mexico, for the sale of starch from pineapple stems.
We have sent them about 60 kg of cellulose and 55 kg of starch to use in their products and the tests have been successful, in order to replace the use of imported tree cellulose and corn starch.

We have worked with BioSolutions in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, as they purchase raw materials from organic agricultural waste for the creation of environmentally friendly products.
Also in Nuevo Leon we have collaborated with 2 companies in the design of industrial extraction processes of sustainable cellulose, in order to reach competitive prices with traditional cellulose, and we have succeeded, the current proposal is to sell a sustainable cellulose at 850 dls/ton, to compete with traditional cellulose that has a price of 1,100 dls/ton.

Although the venture was created to solve the need of farmers and give added value to organic agricultural waste, our solution not only gives value to the waste, but converts it into sustainable raw materials. This brings an improved approach to the problem, since, the current solutions in Latin America lies in farmers making products and/or art from those wastes for local sale, and in the case of Celal-mex, we create sustainable substitutes for the most used raw materials worldwide. In the case of cellulose, 6.8 billion trees are cut down to produce 400 million tons of the product, and with cellulose from pineapple waste it will not be necessary to cut down a single tree, and we have improved the extraction process of this raw material, reducing its environmental impact by 40%. In the case of starch, we avoid wasting corn and creating yet another waste product.

I hope that these new sustainable raw materials will be the starting point for the rest of the most used raw materials in the world to also be extracted from organic agricultural waste and thus be able to reduce the environmental damage of logging and damage to ecosystems. 
How will we make this impact on the population possible? Apart from being an entrepreneur, I am also a scientist, so I know that all ventures based on circular economy need scientists, which is why we will give talks in different Latin American universities to promote research and business creation in university careers. It will also serve as an example of the impact of the use of our products.

The goals I have for Celal-Mex are to set up a factory for the production of 25 tons of starch per month and 45 tons of cellulose per month, both extracted from organic waste from pineapple production. 
I plan to achieve this by signing purchase letters of intent with the 4 companies we are collaborating with in Mexico and signing other purchase letters of intent on our part for pineapple leaves and stems with the farmers we work with to legally agree on the purchase price of the raw material. We plan to raise the money to build the factory from investors, since we have already made the financial projections to receive investment and we know where to place the factory. 
The impact of the factory lies in 2 points: the first is that the farmers will be able to legally give a monetary value to their pineapple production residues, since we will buy them, and this will translate into extra income, it will reduce the contamination of the site by avoiding an accumulation of residues and the farmers having to pay to collect them. It would also create indirect jobs when building the factory and direct jobs when it is already operating in the area of Isla, Veracruz, Mexico.

We use an existing technology for the extraction of cellulose from pineapple leaves, we use an alkaline hydrolysis, but we modify it to be able to use water and caustic soda up to 4 times before taking a water treatment in order to be properly disposed of. For the extraction of starch from pineapple stalks, we use the same technology as for a corn starch extraction, i.e. centrifugation and hot air drying.

What changes most here is the application of these technologies, as they are used to produce environmentally friendly and sustainable substitutes for conventional raw materials from organic agricultural residues.

The products will be launched this year and based on the 4 potential customers we have, 3 farmers and pineapple producers will directly benefit from us buying raw material from them, and with the products, we expect to impact 108,000 people in Mexico, since they are the number of customers that our future 4 customers have.

Financial: We need an investment of 9 million Mexican pesos for the construction and start-up of a starch production plant in Veracruz, Mexico. Prior to the investment, we need money to file 2 patents and register the company's trademark.

Technical: We need to expand the work team, but we do not yet have enough money to have employees to support us.

Legal: We need the companies that will be our future clients to sign letters of intent to purchase, to provide security to future investors for the production of starch and cellulose. To build an industrial plant and start operations, we need to complete the corresponding procedures with SEMARNAT in Mexico, which is the institution in charge of regulating products manufactured in the country. We also need to process patents for the first uses of the cellulose and starch to be sold. We still have to sign confidentiality agreements to be able to produce cellulose from pineapple leaves in Mexican maquiladoras.
Market: We need to conduct several market analyses of our products so as not to limit our growth.

We collaborate with the following organizations:

Tecnológico de Monterrey: This is the university where we are studying, and has lent us their facilities for the research and development of the cellulose and starch production process.

Institute for Obesity and Research at Tecnológico de Monterrey: They have invested on us about 400 thousand Mexican pesos in machines to produce more than 15 kg of cellulose per month and to be able to send it to future customers.

Biosolutions: They have been one of the first companies interested in us from Monterrey, Mexico. We have worked with them on the financial part of the cellulose and have sent them more than 60 kg of the product for pilot tests.

Piñera Carmelita: This group of farmers are our main suppliers of raw material (pineapple production residues) for the production of starch and cellulose.

Products: 

Mainly for cellulose, we want to cover part of the national demand for cellulose pulp, due to the high import costs and the devastating environmental impact generated by the traditional pulp industry. For starch, we want to look for ecological alternatives to the use of corn that could be better used as food production. Basically, our products are managed under a B2B model but with a direct impact on the environment, consumers and the national supply chain. Because Mexican industry is looking for cheaper, quality and sustainable alternatives.

Products sales: cellulose, starch, bioplastic, nanocellulose, phenols among others.

Investment capital for research.