2023-07-14 18:35:00
Walter Mata was inspired by looking at the sky. Why can’t I see the hill of the chair? He wondered at the same time that he tried to define what that grayish mantle was. It was not clouds, nor mist. It was air pollution. And this is how his concern to work on environmental issues was born, which today results in the creation of sustainable cement, through the treatment of mining waste.
For the development of this project, the Research Center for Applied Chemistry (CIQA) in Saltillo, it was key. Here is the story of how a young undergraduate student became the inventor of the year in 2022 thanks to the support of scientists.
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POLLUTION THAT HARMS HEALTH
Concerned about air pollution, Walter relates that he began to find out where the greatest number of agents that polluted the air came from.
“In the media they said that it was public transport that caused the contamination, but I saw the mountains eaten away and I began to investigate”, he talks.
This data had already been investigated, as is the case of the National Housing Commission of the Government of Mexico, which indicates that 50% of polluting emissions come from the construction industry.
The young student soon realized that the air pollution came from companies that produce cement and wanted to size up the problem.
After observing, documenting, asking, and multiplying, the result was that a ton of concrete produces approximately 770 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2). This one is cleared by trees.
At CIQA they taught me to develop materials, formulate recycled plastic, how to test, how to calculate, I literally learned everything there”.
“A young tree manages to absorb between 20 and 30 kilograms of CO2 per year. An old tree, 50 years old, cleans up to 60 kilograms. So we have that the pollution generated by a 40-story building would be cleaned in a year by 20 million trees!”
“We are talking about a single building. And it is where I question when and where we are going to plant that. That amount of trees is equivalent to 7 thousand foundry parks!”
Walter develops this sustainable cement to combat air pollution. OMAR SAUCEDO
And it is that air pollution not only prevents seeing hills, but also causes respiratory diseases such as allergies and asthma. Which Walter already suffers from.
“That’s where I decide I want to do something sustainable.”
FROM THE UNIVERSITY TO THE WORLD
The story begins in 2014, when he decided to study a degree in Business Creation and Innovation at the University of Monterrey (UDEM).
Remember that the first project he did with other colleagues was to pay for parking with plastic bottles. “At the time it looked interesting, although it was not viable,” he acknowledged.
Walter Mata knew that it would be the environmental issue that he wanted to develop, but he still did not know how. This led him to contact a Japanese company that turned plastic into fuel. The goal was to bring that technology to Mexico.
He spent a year in communication and learned to handle the material. He was also not viable for legislative reasons. He came the energy reform.
Over time, together with two friends, they created Was Compañy, a word created by using the initials of their names.
Young Mexican entrepreneur creates an innovative company in waste management and sustainable materials. OMAR SAUCEDO
Then each one carried out different projects. The friendship didn’t change, but the meaning of WAS did, which became WordWide Accountability Solutions.
CIQA OPENS ITS DOORS TO YOU
“I started making prototypes at home with plastic, but if you don’t have enough machinery it’s toxic. So I sought to ally myself with scientists, ”she recounts.
Convinced in developing sustainable materials, Walter Mata seeks the support of research centers, and the Center for Research in Applied Chemistry (CIQA), in Saltillo, opened the doors for him.
He told them he wanted to handle plastic. He was not an engineer, but he had basic knowledge.
To develop projects he had two options: pay or become a thesis student.
“They gave me the opportunity and I chose to be a thesis student. I linked my thesis. The information that was generated stayed in CIQA and I kept the learning”, she commented.
The Mexican company stands out worldwide in the generation of sustainable solutions for construction. OMAR SAUCEDO
This research center based in Saltillo, told VANGUARDIA that Walter Daniel Mata Martínez, accredited at that time as a student of the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Creation and Innovation, from the Business School of the University of Monterrey, carried out the study at the CIQA “Was Company business feasibility analysis, based on the design of new construction materials based on recycled polymeric compounds and its business model”.
This in the period from June to December 2018 under the advice of Dr. Édgar Nazareno Cabrera Álvarez, principal investigator of the Nuevo León Unit of this institution.
For almost a year, Walter traveled to Saltillo. He was there six hours a day, every day in the morning. At night he studied business. “It was like studying two careers.” At the University of Monterrey he focused on the creation of the company and at CIQA on the development of the material.
“(At CIQA) they taught me to develop materials, mainly plastic. Formulate recycled plastic with mineral assets. I understood how to formulate, how to test. How to calculate and analyze tests. I literally learned everything there.”
“Thanks to that experience in the laboratory, I started with tests. First I wanted to make a blog, but between rehearsals we managed to create the CIMBRA”.
This is recycled plastic and replaces wood.
In an interview with VANGUARDIA, Walter showed us his creation that could revolutionize the cement industry and reduce polluting emissions. OMAR SAUCEDO
He explains: “Wood gives you up to five uses and this one gives you more than a hundred”, he comments, while holding his creation. A square of no more than 30 centimeters and whose texture is similar to drywall. It can also be used as an interior wall and for facades.
Another invention was “ECOLOGICAL CLINKER”. This developed when a mining company, whose name he preferred to omit, contacted them: they had millions of mineral residues.
“It is a grayish mud. They told us that a year they generated 300,000 tons of this waste”, says Walter.
Was Co managed to design a physical chemical process that transforms this sludge to make CLINKER, which is the main base of cement.
“The production of CLINKER is the one that contaminates the most, which is why its use began to decrease,” he comments.
By converting the residue from the mining companies into the cement base, the generation of CO2 can be avoided.
AN INVENTION THAT GENERATES CURIOSITY IN CEMENT FACTORIES
Walter Mata has already had contacts with the Holcim company and with other cement companies.
This week it signed a contract with the Canadian government for the generation of sustainable materials.
Converting mining waste into cement could be the solution to the challenges imposed on cement companies to reduce their polluting emissions.
Although Walter is in the negotiation process and that prevents him from giving details, his creations have already placed him as the inventor of the year in 2022 by MIT Technology Review, which awards innovators under 35 years of age in Latin America.
It has also obtained awards such as the Dow Mexico Award, for being a company with a value chain, and the Municipal Entrepreneur Award in San Pedro, among others.
Was Company was selected worldwide within the Unicef Lab program, to obtain financing, mentoring and advice.
Walter develops technologies to convert mining waste into construction materials. OMAR SAUCEDO
The objective is to become a benchmark company for the management of sustainable materials. You want to expand in Mexico and Latin America in the medium term.
The dream of having a world-class company in waste management and transforming the construction industry is getting closer, and Walter is grateful that the CIQA in Saltillo has trusted his idea and capabilities. Well, together with the knowledge acquired at UDEM, he managed to make the company he founded in 2018, before graduating, gain international relevance in a little less than five years.
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