After several years investigating the manufacture of sustainable chemicals in Abengoa, Joaquín Alarcón de la Lastra, once outside the company, decided not to throw the time worked on the ground. He negotiated with the Andalusian multinational to develop this research on his own and in 2017 he founded Catalyxx. Since then it has raised more than 21 million euros in financing to what must be added more than 25 million that Abengoa has already invested. A long and expensive process that this year will add a new round. The European Investment Bank (BEI) has granted to Catalyxx the preapprobation of a financing of 37 million euros that aims Bioethanol in other sustainable such as biobutanol, biohexanol or bio -octhanol. A unique and patented technology that aims to replace a product that is manufactured from oil with another element that derives from a raw material of renewable origin. «We are designing a new route so that the future of the chemical industry ceases to be petrochemical. With that we manage to reduce the carbon footprint,» says Alarcón de la Lastra. Its objective is not to manufacture a new product, but a new way of preparing it at a competitive cost that, according to the founder, is around 60% cheaper. With the same applications as the original element: resins, paintings, adhesives, cosmetics … «All these products can incorporate that natural element and in the boat it will appear that they are of renewable origin,» he emphasizes. Operational in 2027 and will involve an investment of 120 million euros. «We lift it there for logistics reasons. The European chemical industry is between Germany, Holland, Belgium and France and this area is the geographical center,» he says. But not only Europe appears among its next destinations. According to Alarcón de la Lastra, this factory will have its replicas in Brazil and the United States. His business model, which 2024 reported about 307,000 euros and that this year they expect to exceed one million euros, they have articulated it in two aspects. On the one hand, with the production of chemicals and, on the other, through the licensing of technology, whereby any company interested in preparing its products, can do so after the payment of a fee. For manufacturing, the founder directs his goal to Europe, the United States and Brazil, while to license Asia he has become his priority destination. For the first, they have signed with a European chemical company, from which it avoids saying its name for confidentiality reasons, and for the second they have reached an agreement in December 2024 with India Godavari Biorefineries Limited. According to company sources, this contract will guarantee recurring income of 2.5 million dollars a year (about 2.17 million euros).
