About my Start-up
SUSPOL is a spin-off of the University of Alcalá (UAH) created in December 2022 to commercialise the results obtained and patented by the SOSCATCOM research group.
We have developed a unique reversible technology to produce a wide variety of biobased and biodegradable plastics in primary forms for various applications, and to perform chemical recycling of polyesters and polycarbonates to regenerate the raw materials, completely closing the plastic loop.
Our technology enables both the production and chemical recycling of bioplastics in a continuous flow, which is a disruptive technology for the plastic industry.
We are expert chemists in the design of polymerisation catalysts, and our technology derives from extensive experience in the field of polymer synthesis, as evidenced by a large number of publications in high-impact journals. We work with biobased monomers, such as terpenes, to produce biobased and biodegradable plastics with different properties that make them suitable for use in various applications.
Our technology is developed to a TRL 4 (laboratory proof of concept), and we are currently developing the funding strategy to scale up our processes in a pilot plant (CQAB at the University of Alcalá) and perform manufacturing trials to achieve a TRL 6/7.
Why your idea is a “winner"?:
Our technology enables higher production capacity, better utilisation of resources such as raw materials and solvents needed and, most importantly, a significant reduction in energy costs: our processes are carried out at room temperature in one minute, whereas commercial PLA is currently produced at high temperatures and with long reaction times. Furthermore, our catalysts do not require extensive purification of the monomer as in the current industrial process. Furthermore, our obtained PLA also does not require a purification process to remove unreacted monomer, as all of it is converted.
Furthermore, this technology opens the way to solving the problem of plastic waste, as several polyesters and other conventional plastics can be depolymerised, i.e. chemically recycled, to obtain the raw materials needed for their production.
What is your current or intended business/revenue model?:
The price of commercial bioplastics is still higher than oil-based plastics. However, the current price of commercial bioplastics is around 3-5 €/kg. Moreover, the commercial formulations and productive process to produce these commercial bioplastics are not entirely developed and still many optimizations can be performed. In this respect, research and development has a strong implication to develop new processes and materials. Therefore, our goal is to achieve selling cheaper bioplastics with improved properties in respect with the commercial ones.
Our competitive advantage resides mainly in the reduction of production costs thanks to our polymerization catalysts. Currently, commercial PLA is obtained using a toxic tin catalyst through prolonged reactions that require many purification processes for raw materials and products, and high temperatures. These factors mean that the production of this and other bioplastics have very high energy costs, so any innovative process that saves costs will be welcome in the industry.
Our catalysts are very robust, being able to carry out the reaction in much less restrictive conditions of humidity and oxygen, in just one minute, at room temperature, using solvents that can be recirculated and reused infinite times, and achieving the total transformation of the raw materials into bioplastics.
Therefore, our technology allows an increase in the productive capacity of an existing facility, improves the use of resources, and a very significant reduction in energy costs.
Do you have any Patent or IP registered (related to the solution that you are looking for an investment)?:
ES2610432_A1 (granted), P202230965 (registered).
Has your technology already been implemented in any field/sector?:
Many polymerization catalysts have been developed to work in solution, however none of them had a chance to reach the market. That is why our technology is so disruptive.
Therefore, our technology has not yet been implemented in any field/sector.
Which market and customer need(s)/problem(s) is (are) your products(s)/service(s) going to solve?:
Our competitive advantage resides mainly in the reduction of production costs thanks to our catalysts.
Commercial PLA is currently obtained using a toxic tin catalyst through long processes that require many purification processes, raw materials and products, and high temperatures. These factors make the production of this and other bioplastics have very high energy costs, so any innovative process that allows cost savings will be welcome in the industry.
Our catalysts are very robust, being able to carry out the reaction in much less restrictive conditions of humidity and oxygen, in just one minute, at room temperature, using solvents that can be recirculated and reused infinite times, and achieving the total transformation of the raw materials in bioplastic.
Therefore, we managed to increase the productive capacity to a given facility, improve the use of resources, and a very significant reduction in energy costs.
There is a great opportunity in the market, since there are few producers of plastics and many who are dedicated to their manufacture. Our customers are likely to pivot towards bioplastics, however, most of them keep on manufacturing only conventional plastics due to the high price of bioplastics. Moreover, the legislation is increasingly in favour of bioplastics, and it is already the consumers themselves who are demanding more sustainable solutions.
Team members
The Prof. Marta Elena González Mosquera, FRSC, is Full Professor in Inorganic Chemistry within the Excellence Program for the Comunidad de Madrid. She attained her PhD degree in Chemistry in the University of Oviedo on Ru(II) complexes bearing P-donor ligands. After her PhD, she moved to Cambridge University to join Prof. D. S. Wright group where her research was focused on main group chemistry. In 2003 she moved to Alcalá University. Prof. Marta E. G. Mosquera has a broad experience in organometallic, coordination chemistry, catalysis and polymerization processes. She has participated in more than 25 national and international research projects and her work has been reported in more than 115 papers (more than 100 in Q1 journals) and several book chapters. As well she has presented more than 100 conferences contributions (several as invited speaker). Within these research areas she has supervised 28 Master and PhD thesis. She has been invited to give talks in UK, Poland and Spanish Universities.
She was a member of the Organizing Committee of the “XXII Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography” that took place in Madrid in 2011 (www.iucr2011madrid.es), where 3000 people attended. She has also been involved in the organization of Symposia in various conferences: ECM26 meeting (2010 Darmstad, Germany), MISCA2010 (Oviedo 2010) and XXXV Biannual RSEQ (2015, La Coruña, Spain). ECM31 (2018, Oviedo) and XXIX GE3C (2020, Vigo, Spain). Member of the International Scientific Advisory board of the 1st International Conferences on Noncovalent Interactions (ICNI2019) in Lisbon. Additional she has co-organized the Organometallic Day in September 2017 in the University of Alcala and hosted the IV CHAOS COST action meeting in the University of Alcala in March 2018. As well, she was the Chair in the organizing committee of the 1st UK-Spain Organometallic Chemistry Symposium held in Alcala de Henares in September 2019 and member of the organizing committee for the EUCOMC XXIV to be hosted in Alcalá in 2021.
She is also Guest editor for the Dalton Transactions themed web collection on Inorganic Chemistry of the p-Block Elements for the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table. Additionally, she is reviewer for chemistry journals of the following publishers: Elsevier, ACS, RSC, Nature and Wiley. Member of the Editorial Board of the: Journal of Chemistry (Inorganic section), Frontiers in Chemistry and Crystals. She has been part of the committee for the RSEQ Castilla-La Mancha section Excellent Chemistry Awards. Evaluator for the UE research programs (VII Framework and H2020), National Science Centre from Poland, UK RSC Grants and the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI). Marta E. G. Mosquera is a Fellow de la Royal Society of Chemistry and Member of the Government Board of the Spanish RSEQ and GE3C.
She has an extensive experience supervising the research team including 5 postdocs and students at different levels, 7 PhD, 21 MSc, 11 BSc projects. As well she has participated in outreach activities for secondary schools or the general public. She was also one of the invited speakers in the presentation of the special issue that the RSEQ published on occasion of the International Year of the Periodic Table in May 2019, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and she has participated in Pint of Science 2019, Week of Science 2019 and “Chemistry in action” at Alcalá University (2004-2020).
Education:
• Degree in Chemical Engineering in Autonumous University of Barcelona, with honors enrolled in the subject of statistics.
• Postgraduate course in Artificial Intelligence with Deep Learning at the UPC Tech Talent.
Work experience:
• Intelligent Chemistry S.L December 2020 – now (2 years) Co-Founder & CEO Leader and responsible of the company. Development and leading the development of the entire software platform, validation, and testing under real use cases with customers. Business development and company break even without external private investment. Won different prices and awards.
• TDV S.L Sept 2020 – May 2021 (10 months) Pharmaceutical Consultant GMP consultant for pharmaceutical and biotech software projects.
• Air Liquide S.A June 2019 – Sept 2020 (5 months) Plant engineer Update of the P&I and CAD plans of the plant.
• Ingeniería Analítica S.L 2018 – 2019 (1 year) Development of an odor prediction software using Machine Learning and big volume of chemical samples.
Valentina Sessini obtained her Academic Degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2011 at the University of Cagliari (Italy). In 2012 she participated to the International Master Course in “Green Chemistry” at the University of Sassari. In the framework of this Master, she had introduced to the biobased and biodegradable materials doing a stage at Novamont S.p.A working with starch-based adhesives. Then, she entered in the PhD program of the University of Perugia as the winner of a competitive Scholarship of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the Project “Fondo Giovani Ricercatori” to investigate on blends and bionanocomposites based on starch obtaining her PhD degree in Civil and Innovative Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology on May, 2017. Thanks to the granted mobility activity developed during her PhD thesis, she had the possibility to move to Madrid and work at the ICTP – CSIC where she obtained also a second Master in High specialization in Plastics and rubber (UIMP – ICTP) in 2015. Moreover, she has built a European network of collaborators experienced on biobased smart polymers (Italy, Spain, France and Belgium). After that, she moved to Belgium, at the University of Mons in a frame of a Postdoctoral position developing biobased free-isocyanate polyurethanes with piezoelectric properties by reactive extrusion. She has experience in biopolymers and bionanocomposites synthesis, processing and characterization. She has published 12 peer-reviewed JRC scientific publications and 5 book chapters. Her work has been presented in more than 20 national and international congresses and she is frequently Reviewer of SCI Journals from different editorials. She supervised different students work in the laboratory and she has participated in several scientific divulgation activities. Currently, she is developing GREENPEHS project as a GET-COFUND MarieCurie Fellow at the University of Alcalá.
I started my career as researcher when I got a scholarship as an Erasmus student to stay in Robert James Baker’s lab at Trinity College Dublin. At TCD, we investigated the removal of the Teflon-derived contaminant PFOA from aqueous samples with perfluorinated compounds through non-covalent fluorine-fluorine interactions.
Later, I returned to Alcalá de Henares to develop the Master in the SOSCATCOM group (Sustainable catalytic processes with organometallic compounds) under the supervision of Marta E. G. Mosquera. After completing the Master’s Postgraduate Degree, I obtained a competitive PhD scholarship to develop my Doctoral Thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Mosquera on the synthesis of chemoselective catalysts to obtain polymers with advanced properties.
During these last 5 years, we have obtained remarkable results in the field of ring opening polymerization reactions through the use of homo and heterometallic complexes of highly chemoselective aluminium derivatives as catalysts to obtain functionalized polymers from multifunctional monomers.
· We have synthesized glycidyl methacrylate polymeric nanoparticles (cPGMA) as nanocarriers for antimicrobial peptides such as lysozyme through the controlled crosslinking of the corresponding polyether.
· We have achieved the production of a functionalized biobased polymer of limonene oxide (PLO), and we have described the effective use of this material as a biobased plasticizer for polylactide (PLA) with obtaining mixtures with improved properties compared to the commercial material.
· We have also obtained a limonene oxide-based polyester with potential biodegradable and barrier properties for many applications such as packaging and as quilting films.
· We have synthesized various polyesters and polycarbonates with metallic catalysts that we have patented. Our reversible technology also affords the depolymerization of several (bio)polyesters. This behaviour would allow us to completely close the plastic loop and develop a fully-sustainable plastic production.
Thanks to the amazing results we have recently established a University of Alcalá spin-off to produce bioplastics in an industrial scale, which led us to win the second prize in an ideas contest. We are currently working with the group of investors Grow Venture Partners to drive our project forward, and we have been selected the winner of their accelerator program.
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