Bio-platform

Packing pallets made by biomass from agro-industrial processes in Costa Rica. Inspired by the elytra of the Zopherus beetle, an insect with great resistance to compression and structural stress.

Bio-platform wants to resolve waste management in Costa Rica's agricultural communities. Because we live in a country that has agriculture as one of its most important economic activities, we produce tonnes of waste that are not managed responsibly for the environment and the communities around the plantations. 

On the one hand, pineapple is the third most important export product in Costa Rica, there are 145 pineapple exporters and 58 packing plants. During its harvest, it produces over 220 tonnes of waste between its stems, leaves and crowns. It is a problem for producers and agricultural communities, since pineapple waste takes up to 13 months to decompose and it is a limitation for producers since the cultivation is continuous. Abandoning these residues leads to the contamination and proliferation of flies in communities around crops. On the other hand, 1,915,959 bushels of coffee fruit are produced. The coffee chaff represents one of the largest agricultural residues in Costa Rica, which causes significant environmental damage because the gasification of this waste will avoid greenhouse gas emissions. 

Waste management represents a major environmental and health problem in Costa Rica. Many of the methods indicated for its management are too expensive economically and in effective harvest time.

Bio-platform is a project that proposes the development of packaging pallets made by the waste or biomass of agricultural communities in Costa Rica. Designed from a biomimetic process centered on the biological strategies and design of the Central American ironclad beetle. Looking for an innovative process in the design and production of our platforms. From a sustainable point of view, we do not consider biomass from agro-industrial processes as waste, but as an opportunity material. Under optimized production conditions, we seek to create a material with high structural integrity comparable to others used for the same purpose, but with the difference of being more harmless in environmental terms by applying a new design ethic committed to nature. We are interested in reducing the energy cost, achieving biodegradability, with a resistance comparable to conventional pallets and with a greater efficiency in the use of its materials as well as an efficiency in its structural capacity.

We want Bio-platform to impact the lives of producers and agricultural communities in Costa Rica. Improving the living conditions of the communities that are currently being affected by the incorrect handling of these residues and at the same time, providing producers and farmers with a simple solution in applicability, harmless to the environment and efficient. A solution that turns a problem into a new income for the agricultural industry. Providing an environmentally responsible solution and at the same time, a substantial improvement in the efficiency and adaptability of a vital product for the shipment of your products, the packaging pallets.

We are an interdisciplinary team of 5 problem solvers lead by Jimena Montero Vargas, interested in various fields, including physics, architecture, chemistry, and biology. We work on the edge of interdisciplinarity to approach problems from a variety of perspectives. We have combined our experiences in areas like mathematical modeling, graphic design, architecture, and simulation, for understanding the structural organization of biological scaffolds found in insects as Zopherus sp. 

In detail, our team is constituted by two chemists, Jimena Montero and Sebastian Hernandez, who are focused on aiming the re-purpose of cellulosic materials from agricultural waste to create and characterize blends with enhanced properties that can be used as a substitute for wood in packing pallets production. In addition, our scientific advisor, Dr. Rebeca Mora guided us to abstract the biological intricacies of the natural design to understand the mechanical and evolutionary implications of the beetle’s elytron. Finally, Mariana Gomez and Edgar Perez, who are the architects that are re-designing the palette through biomimicry strategies.

A member of our team is originally from a farming community, so based on that experience, we are taking this following steps in our solution:

Research: Understanding the crops of these products, their production chains and the limits created by waste today.

Contact with producer’s: Currently, there is communication with farmers from the south and central valley of our country, to generate in 2023 visits to their crops, to understand the problem more than just numbers. Also, establish communication with the communities around the crops, obtain feedback, recommendations and information on the effects they experience due to incorrect waste management. To connect Bio-platform with the community.

Our solution is innovative due to the technology we use for its development, biomimicry. Bio-platform decided to have a commitment as a project, which consists in seeing nature as a source of ideas and not resources. Because of this, we face challenges such as ensuring that ours platforms are harmless to nature, optimizing its design and future production using new production technology and low energy cost. The reinsertion of waste into the productive chain as a valuable material. Our innovation is found in our sustainable approach, in a design based on a natural mentor and its biological strategies. In the optimized redesign and plant-based materiality.

In 2023 we project as a goal, to comply with the required material and structure resistance standards.

1. Carry out materiality tests testing the proposed biomass:

We carry out laboratory sessions with collaborators trained in Chemistry, in order to develop a material with great resistance and adaptability.

2. Develop the first one-piece prototype for future industrial production: With our collaborators from the physics and architecture area, we evolved the current prototype into a single piece to ensure its ease and optimization in production.

3. Resistance tests: With our physics collaborators, we carry out tests and simulations in order to ensure the structural resistance of our Bio-platform.

By the end of this year we want to have a prototype ready for user testing. Achieving a packaging pallet with a material with a high structural integrity comparable to other employees for the same purpose, but with the difference of being more harmless in environmental terms by applying a new design ethic committed to nature.

Biomimicry was the core technology of our solution.

The application of methods, biological strategies and systems was vital for the Bio-platform to become a reality today. From the analysis of tissues and natural structures in electron microscopy, to the modeling, simulations and printing of our 3D prototype. 

As a project we want to give support to 158 pineapple producers and their communities in 3 provinces of our country. To the 38,804 coffee producing families in 8 regions of Costa Rica. Avoiding the abandonment or mismanagement of waste that ends up affecting communities, their soils and rivers. Next year we plan to reach 3 large pineapple and coffee producers located in the south and central valley of our country.

The barrier that could stop or delay the progress of the project is that we are not sure that we will be financed next year. 

Bio-platform is currently being financed by the University of Costa Rica in the modality of research work.
We also work with Biomimesis Costa Rica, who provides us with accompaniment and guidance.

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Bio-platform business model

Our solution will achieve economic sustainability through the sale of our Bio-platforms to our biomass suppliers. Producers, farmers and distributors, would use their own waste for the production of their packaging system. Due to the raw material of our product, its cost would be lower than that of conventional platforms, which have a short useful life compared to our balance price. There are 2,116 exporters in Costa Rica, opening our market to companies outside of the agricultural industry.