13/05/2019.

Green Talent Mario Heredia Salgado first winner of the ISC3centre Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry

Mario Alejandro Heredia Salgado wins the “Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry Award” with his start-up "Andes" which has been granted by the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) for the first time in 2019 as part of the Elsevier Foundation ISC3 Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge.

Heredia has developed a process to produce biochar from agribusiness biomass wastes to improve stressed soils. The prize consists of a cash award of 25,000 EUR plus the onboarding at the ISC3 Global Start-up Service and was awarded on 6 May 2019 at the 4th Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Dresden in Germany.

The new ISC3 Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry award highlights scientists with entrepreneurial spirit in the field of sustainable chemistry. The jury of international experts selected innovative ideas terms of market potential, business models, technological innovation and impact. With the award, ISC3 intends to inspire the scientific community to bring sustainable solutions to the markets. 

Mario Heredia Salgado (Green Talent in 2018) from Ecuador is the first winner of the ISC3 Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry. He created his start-up "Andes" based on his academic thesis where he developed a process to produce biochar from agribusiness biomass wastes for soil improvement. The energy required for the char production is taken from the very same process. The product itself then can be used to restore degraded land and increase crop yield. The innovation convinced the jury because the concept embraces multiple sustainable technical approaches from the fields of waste management, renewable energy production and harnessing biogenies sources. In addition, Salgado’s innovation has shown technical feasibility and he has already built a network of partners. Supported by the European Committee for Training and Agriculture, the prize winner is currently a Ph.D. student at Aveiro University in Portugal.

The prize winner was selected out of 44 candidates by a jury of three international experts: Prof. Henning Friege, Professor at the Leuphana University, Prof. Joel Tickner, Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Director of the ISC3 Regional Hub in the US, and Dr. Claudio Cinquemani, Director of Science and Innovation at ISC3 in Bonn.

Find more information here.