Oxtron

An all-in-one environmental management service that measures, controls and captures GHG emissions of companies.

The way we feed ourselves and its entire value chain generate 9.7 billion tons of greenhouse gases, around 25% of GHG emissions worldwide.
With a growing population and urbanization, the demand for food is expected to double by 2050, leading to more intensive food production and increased emission levels.

Nowadays, the solutions available are limited to a specific market sector, large corporations, and the services provided are inefficient, slow and expensive.

• 91% of companies do not measure emissions fully since they use survey reporting tools that do not include the value chain, where more than 70% of emissions are located.
• Most of the calculations for the measurement of the carbon footprint are performed with average data or third parties data bases, completely limiting the participation of suppliers and working with information that is not 100% accurate. In a context where information is constantly updated and reflects changes in the quantities of emissions produced, the source of the information is relevant to companies and suppliers in an economic, legal, competitive and reputational context.
• The available remediation methods do not decarbonize efficiently because they allow combustion sources to continue emitting gases into the atmosphere and only offer offsets to mitigate the impact. Finally, current capture services only target large emitters and are very expensive.
• These services completely exclude small and medium issuers, farmers and SMEs, who also have economic, environmental and legal needs to implement technologies to improve their processes and be able to gamify this information in their pricing and market share strategies.

If we want to avoid economic and environmental damage, it is necessary to make available to emitters, regardless of their size, the necessary tools to measure and reduce the environmental impact of their operations. Where the generation of information is a key piece to understand the behavior of consumers, the performance of operations and how to turn sustainability into a competitive advantage.
In order to effectively decarbonize industries, we must develop strategies that allow us to reduce the carbon footprint of production processes and value chains, where knowledge, reduction and communication of environmental impact allow the development of a low-carbon circular economy.

Oxtron is focused on delivering an all-in-one management service to measure, control and capture GHG. 

The solution's unique approach combines a technological device and data management systems, with bi-directional connectivity, to automate the calculation of life cycle assessments, processes and product's carbon footprints, and Scopes 1, 2, and 3, while filtering, capturing, and monitoring quantities of CO2, SO2, PM 1, 2.5 and 10 generated in combustion processes, to create and report data of the operations and system's performance. Where the captured CO2 emissions can be used to produce low carbon materials.

Through the integration of supplier information, companies can obtain primary and updated data to make informed decisions, thus creating a market that drives competition to lower environmental impact.

The solution enables both, highly polluting companies and small emitters, to adopt technology that is able to adapt to their needs,in order to reveal hotspots, control emissions produced in the entire value chain and obtain  real-time information to comply with environmental regulations and use sustainability as a path to cost reductions while growing in a net-zero economy.

Oxtron's solution was specially designed to adapt to the needs of different users, tackling different target markets;

Carbon footprint measurement (CF): The target market are farmers who need to report their environmental impact to comply with legislation in the countries where they export or improve their bargaining power during sales. These farmers do not have the knowledge to calculate their environmental impact, but they do have internet access and information about their crops, the two aspects needed to use our product.

Scope Measurement and CF: Restaurants, hotels, catering services and food producing companies that seek to improve their sustainability strategies, be recognized as an Environmentally Responsible Company or comply with regulations to improve their positioning in the market, attract a new sector of customers or reduce costs by optimizing processes.

Carbon Capture: The target market are small and medium-sized emitters - brickyards, crematoriums, restaurants, cement factories, asphalt plants - that currently do not comply with environmental regulations and are subject to fines, taxes and complaints for pollution, affecting their reputational value.

All-in-one: The target market are companies such as Alsea and Nestlè that have adopted sustainability strategies since they need to report their actions to investors, clients and stakeholders and thus generate strategies to obtain economic, reputational and legal incentives. However, the available solutions only offers partial measurement and offsets since it does not act in the entire value chain as it is inefficient, slow and expensive.

Our solution allows companies and farmers to digitize their operations to quantify their environmental impact and act directly at the sources. Making them able to demonstrate to their own consumers that they know how to measure and how to remedy their carbon footprint, making them, and their own products, not only responsible but also sustainable.

Our interdisciplinary team of Agronomists, Designers, Business Developers and Chemical, Mechatronic and Sustainable Development Engineers, has the necessary knowledge to develop all areas of the solution, creating physical and digital infrastructure. Positioning the team as capable of scaling the startup to different industries.

Most of the team has been involved in projects related to sustainability, which allows us to have a deep understanding of the needs of the problem and the skills to build and iterate different solutions.

Jazmín Salazar - Team Leader & CEO (Female)

Graduated from Tec de Monterrey with a bachelor's degree in Business Creation and Development and selected as Top 100 Business Students in 2 consecutive years. While at college, Jazmín developed a marine bioreactor to mitigate acidification to prevent coral bleaching, a predecessor project that won the Santander Award for Business Innovation. Later, she studied software development and chemical engineering, with a focus on Carbon Capture & Utilization. 

Jazmín grew up in Mexico, in contact with farmers, allowing her to see first-hand how climate change is affecting the most vulnerable and the repercussions of a country which public policies are against climate change. With the aim of developing social impact initiatives to bring CleanTech to affected stakeholders, regardless of their resources, and to create a circular economy, she created Oxtron.

ADVISORS

We have two advisors who are listed here below.

1. Victor Moctezuma
MIT graduate and founder of iLab, an innovation consultancy designed as a result of the MIT REAP.  Fellow of Ashoka and Gifted Citizen of Ciudad de las Ideas. He was awarded the National Entrepreneur Award by the Presidency of Mexico in 2015.

2. Dr. Gabriel Ascanio
He obtained a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNAM and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic School of Montreal. Tenured researcher, professor of Mechanical Engineering, member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, and consultant for international companies.

We carried out a pilot with an international restaurant chain with more than 800 points of sale in order to understand the problems they are facing and develop a suitable solution for their needs. Based on the results, we created the first version of the modular system that can capture up to 60% of the emissions generated monthly by this type of emitters,  and also the first platform to measure the carbon footprint of food, which we tested with 20 national companies in order to collect data, verify operations and receive feedback. The results were used to complete the Scope measurement software.

To develop the platform for measuring the carbon footprint of crops, we are collaborating with the Institute of the Americas and the Alianza para la Seguridad Alimentaria de Baja California Sur. A pilot is planned with farmers in Baja California Sur to automate the calculation process, test it with end users and make it accessible to a sector that needs the information to comply with legislation and carry out international exports.

The process of automating calculation methodologies and the creation of a database that is fed both by the integration of the results themselves and by the information generated through the use of sensors and IoT, allows for on-demand information and control of emissions like never before.

Our solution is accessible and efficient as it acts through the entire value chain, making available a portfolio of products that adapt to the needs of different users, and making CleanTech more affordable and accessible to all.

We intend to be fully rolled out in the market in the next year with at least 5 employees, 24 capture systems operating, 100 platform users and starting pilots with large corporations like Alsea.

We have cultivated partnerships with environmental consultancies and significant industry players who are our early adopter and key connections to present and license our solutions before the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry ( CANIRAC) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), who are working on creating the Environmentally Responsible Restaurant and Clean Company seal, respectively, for which they need to implement new verification processes.

The companies that we help to transform will see the results of the decisions based on sustainability, the demand that they manage to generate and the importance that their own clients give them, encouraging the development of reduction strategies. With this type of tools we can empower small producers and farmers so that they can obtain relevant information, improve their bargaining power and their positioning in the markets.

Oxtron combines intelligent software and automated hardware, with connectivity to sensors and IoT to measure the carbon footprint, identify hotspots and pollutants in real time with remote monitoring, managing to measure, control and capture the GHG generated in the value chain to generate operational optimizations and economic savings.

• The carbon capture process uses amine absorption in a modular system applied to different industries. Combustion gases enter a filter tank to separate solid particles such as ash, soot, PM 2.5 and PM 10 and desulfurize the gas to separate carbon dioxide from the rest of the gases. This concentrated CO2 stream is fed to a countercurrent packed absorber through which an aqueous amine solution flows. The captured CO2 passes to a regenerator where it undergoes different chemical changes to release the absorbed gas into the solution and store it for further treatment. The system has sensors to monitor pressure, temperature, humidity, PM1, PM2.5, PM10, and CO2, which are connected to a platform to allow remote monitoring.
• The calculation process of life cycle analysis, the measurement of Scopes 1, 2 and 3 and the carbon and water footprint is based on the GHG Protocol methodology and connected so that it automatically maintains feedback to the database.The platform has been developed so that any type of crops, products or industries can be calculated.

We have managed to collect in LCA data of over 340 products and performed a pilot test with a minimum viable product with over 30 users to gather feedback and iterate. In 2023, Oxtron will begin regular sales of the services and scale its solution to the target market. This will connect Oxtron to different potential clients, including Commercial Chambers, restaurants chains, asphalt plants, hotels, crematoriums, among others. By involving specific stakeholders we will be able to engage our local community to deploy Oxtron rapidly.

Oxtron's goal is to help more than 100 recurrent platform users and at least 24 capture system users by 2023. These users will be a mix of businesses and farmers who already have a need to deploy solutions to reduce emissions.

• Financing for the construction of hardware and software infrastructure maintenance in a period of scaling, while meeting the market demand.

• Generate a CO2 discharge logistics strategy that is economically and environmentally profitable. Allowing the commercialization of this gas either as a raw material or by converting it to methanol or polypropylene.
• The lack of government incentives, such as public policies, for the adoption of CleanTech on a large scale and the corruption present in the agents in charge of regulating polluting activities

In 2021, Jazmín joined iLab who guided her to identify the problem and provided the necessary mentoring to create Oxtron. The first pilot was carried out the same year in collaboration with the Mexican company Pollo Feliz. The following year, Oxtron managed to be backed by the U.S. and Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce. 

We are currently partnering with the Institute of the Americas and the Alianza para la Seguridad Alimentaria de Baja California Sur to pilot the software for farmers in selected communities and obtain capital support.

Through the outreach Jazmín has had with the MIT community, she has been able to present the project to City Science professors, and is now working to transition these relationships into collaborations.

What products or services do you provide them? How do you provide these products or services?

We offer an environmental impact management service for companies using technological solutions that allow us to:

• Measure the impact of industrial processes and products through the subscription to web platforms, which are interconnected to generate primary and updated information.
• Control emissions through the identification, analysis and optimization of high-carbon operations in the production chain, being able to obtain economic benefits. Service which can be contracted on the same platform and is driven by recommendations with AI.
• Capture the GHG generated in combustion processes through the rental of a modular system that is installed in smokestacks and mixes amine-based chemical processes, the use of sensors and IoT to connect and visualize  the results directly on a web platform.
• Communicate the results of environmental progress through climatic labels and reports, options that are integrated into the platforms.

Why do they want or need them? 

Calculations, reductions, compensation and capture of CO2 emissions are extremely relevant in the current business context, where firms are increasingly under scrutiny. Until now, it mostly concerned big corporations, which often hire specialized agencies to calculate their CO2 impact, however their methods can be slow, expensive, and their compensation solutions insufficient as they limit themselves to offering offsets and do not directly address emission sources. From a business perspective, since the environmental impacts of companies are usually considerable, not working on reducing it becomes a threat to their image and can represent economic losses. To decarbonize companies, solutions are needed that cover the whole supply chain, offering effective reduction methods and capturing inevitable emissions.

Our business model is focused on entrepreneurial support; Through monthly, semi-annual and annual subscriptions to the platforms, we can make operations sustainable and reinvest the profits in the construction of the capture systems, which are rented on the same time frames.
In order to scale operations, we are starting the first angel capital raising, which will allow us to boost our growth in these early stages of life and optimize services to provide effective solutions to our target market.
To meet our goal of developing social impact initiatives to bring CleanTech to low-income clients, we are integrating cross-subsidization into our pricing strategy. This will allow us to charge rates below cost to a group of users -small producers, social cooperatives or farmers - and rates above cost to industrial users and corporations.
In the long term we plan to raise investment capital in order to continue growing.