A study by the Climate
Accountability Institute estimates that 20 companies and multinationals emit
35% of the world's carbon dioxide and methane emissions that generate global
warming. Another estimate calculates that half of Mexico's greenhouse gas emissions
come from the construction industry. Faced with the existential threat that
global warming poses to everyone, Jazmín Salazar, a business administrator
trained at Tecnológico de Monterrey, decided to apply her business knowledge to
achieve a climate-neutral industrial sector.
Her response was to create a system
that would combine software for measuring and controlling CO2 emissions with a
capture device to trap part of the polluting gases that cannot be eliminated.
This vision crystallized in her start-up Oxtron. For this breakthrough, Salazar
has been chosen by MIT Technology Review in Spanish as one of the winners of
Innovators under 35 Latin America 2023.
As for the capture device, Oxtron
offers a modular system that has a first filter that prevents harmful compounds, such as soot, from coming out of chimneys. In a second phase, the hydrogen
sulfide that causes acid rain is removed and part of the carbon dioxide is
captured, which is then pressurized and stored in a tank with the aim of being
converted, in the future, into plastics and other useful chemical compounds.
The system is complemented by
software that monitors in real time and remotely the complete greenhouse gas
emissions along the supply chain. In addition, Oxtron measures the carbon
footprint of food products based on their ingredients and quantities. This
knowledge makes it easier to reduce emissions efficiently, explains its
creator.
"I researched the main sources
of pollution and made an analysis of the technologies that could be applied to
reduce emissions and transform them into a product that would give value to
companies and people. I contacted a restaurant chain where I tested the first
prototypes. Industry emits so much carbon dioxide mainly due to the lack of
access to technological solutions by companies. Current technologies are very
expensive and inefficient. With Oxtron, we democratize the reduction of
industry's impact on the climate crisis," explains the young woman.
Salazar has validated the products
and is introducing them into the Mexican market to capture greenhouse gases.
She is looking to scale the project to companies of all types in Mexico before
making the leap to the rest of Latin America. Another objective is to
synthesize more products from carbon dioxide, such as methanol and
polypropylene, to provide more sustainable and economically profitable
solutions to an environmental problem.
