What is the name of your solution?
SOS Carbon
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Mitigating climate crisis through long-term storage of carbon utilizing the oceans and invasive seaweed which affect ecosystems, health, tourism.
What specific problem are you solving?
The problem that we are trying to solve is climate change by turning another problem that affects the natural ecosystem as a tool for long-term absorption and storage of carbon and methane. The latest IPCC report concluded that negative impacts and damages have arisen from human-induced climate change to both nature and society. Irreversible impacts are known. Coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems have been deteriorating due to climate change. A case of ocean destabilization has been through invasive seaweed. In the last eleven years, sargassum, a toxic seaweed invasion, has cost the Caribbean more than $120 million a year in cleanup and has meant a 30-35% tourism reduction per year, affecting not only the tourism industry, but also the environment, marine life, local economies, and human health. Sargassum is known to make landfall in overwhelmingly large mats, which then die, decompose, and emit a nauseating smell like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide). This has significantly hurt the tourism industry in the Caribbean, the most tourism-dependent region on the planet where, in 2017, the industry provided over 15% of direct gross domestic product (GDP) and ~14% of direct jobs. In 2019, Mexico and the Dominican Republic received 15.5% and 16.3% of GDP from travel and tourism, respectively, and 13.3% and 17.3% of total employment, respectively. In the smaller islands, e.g., Antigua and Barbuda, U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, and Aruba, travel and tourism’s GDP contributions were as high as 42.7%, 55.5%, 57.0% and 73.6%, respectively, and total employment contribution was as high as 90.7%, 68.8%, 66.4% and 84.3%, respectively. Human activity has contributed greatly to climate change and Sargassum inundation of coastlines.
What is your solution?
SOS Carbon is an MIT spinoff focused on scaling a first of its kind, technology/system to collect an invasive seaweed in the ocean before it makes landfall. The organization uses proprietary systems integrated with artisanal boats to harvest the seaweed. This busn path focuses in eliminating the environmental and economic impact from the seaweed invasion while providing other chains of value through allowing the use of sagassum as raw material and by providing formal employment to the local fishermen. The team developed another technology, Sargassum Ocean Sequestration of Carbon (SOS Carbon), which focuses in sequestering carbon and methane which the seaweed captures by sinking it in the open ocean.
The LCM system is a hardware that mounts of artisanal boats for collecting the sargassum at sea. The system has two loops on each side to which nets get straps to collect the seaweed. Once filled, the nets get removed and an empty one is placed. Nets are towed via water to an extraction point. At such location the nets are taken by the ground team to either a processing site or a safe disposal destination. Through the deployment of the LCM system we provide\ formal employment to local artisanal fishermen in the operation of harvesting sargassum at sea (before the seaweed makes landfall) and allowing the use of it as raw material.
The LCM is the ultimate long-term solution to sargassum collection for the tourism industry and civilians. No more manual collection! Low-capital: Have this device on your beach in just weeks, for a fraction of the cost of large conveyor-based machines. High-capacity: Increase the collection capacity of large conveyor-based machines. Low marginal cost: Clean continuously all day, even small amounts of sargassum, for a cleaner beach sunrise to sunset! No visual pollution: Replace large, noisy specialized machinery. Low-impact: Protect ecosystems and critical habitat. Sand-free: Collecting from water avoids sand and other debris, making composting, anaerobic digestion, and other valorization much easier! Patent-pending
SOS Carbon has worked with major tourism group of the Dominican Republic, Grupo Puntacana and Clud Med Punta Cana. SOS has also worked with the Ministry of Environment in the DR. We successfully collected more than 3.5 million pounds of sargassum in 5 months of operation in 2021. During this period, organization also provided formal employment to more than 15 artisanal fishermen and trained more than 50. Along with the robustness of the system, low capex and opex, high volume capacity, the initial 5 months of operations proved that the LCM system is the most cost-efficient method to avoid sargassum landfall and be easily scale across the Caribbean while integrating the local fishermen in the operations and turning a problem into many chains of value. We are currently working to export first shipments of sargassum to Finland and St. Lucia, locations where partners process sargassum and then sell the end product.
Recent Interviews: https://news-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/2022/mit-entrpreneurs-think-globally-act-locally-0225
https://phyconomy.net/articles/sos-carbon-caribbean-sargassum/
Academic Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9410/1/1/4/htm
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Given the level of impact caused by sargassum seaweed across the Caribbean and the carbon and methane accumulated globally, SOS Carbon brings a range of impact. The main affected areas of the Caribbean can be covered within months through the scale of the LCM system. More than 10,000 direct employments to local fishermen can be created across the Caribbean by deploying the LCM system. Additionally, many other chains of value are being developed and expanded by using sargassum as raw material (eg. organic liquid fertilizer, compost, cosmetics).
More importantly, SOS Carbon systems bring a global impact by restoring the oceans and undertaking climate action. Utilizing sargassum and the oceans, we working to reduce millions of tons of carbon and methane per year. With the SOS Carbon system, for sinking the seaweed in the open ocean, we sequester all the toxic gases that sargassum absorbs. Through SOS Carbon we will all win, especially the environment and local communities!
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Sargassum invasions have been affecting the Caribbean, especially the DR & Mexico. I was born and raised in the DR and hold a tide relationship at all levels. For this reason, the MIT team decided to do all the R&D work in the DR. I did this remotely, while working full-time in Philly. After completing the R&D, I left my full-time job and moved to the DR to focus on SOS Carbon. I was in the DR from 07/2020 to 09/2021. We secured collaborations with more than 15 organizations ranging from the academic, public, & private sectors including ONGs which focus in providing environmental sanitation & conservation. During this time, we also obtained the only Environmental Permit in the DR by the Environmental Ministry for sargassum seaweed collection. Mid 2021, after the reopening of the country, we launched service operations in Punta Cana, DR, servicing the largest tourism group, Grupo Puntacana, and Club Med, by hiring the local artisanal fishermen association for sargassum collection.
We have put a special focus in collaborating with NGOs that operate on a similar space of environmental conservation and social responsibility. Working hand-in-in with them we have been able to learn a lot and find the right partners to assist us in scaling. Additionally, for scaling through the Caribbean, we have considered taking a licensing approach in which we partner with local stakeholders to provide the service to the tourism industry and/or local government. SOS Carbon will be providing the hardware, technical knowledge, training, and ongoing support.
Currently, while at MIT Sloan School of Management, as I pursue an MBA, I will be expanding SOS Carbon’s work. I am focusing on the business development of SOS Carbon in the DR and across the Caribbean through the licensing model. We are also working on certifying the Carbon sequestration methods developed to soon be able to claim and sell carbon credits.
Current team: co-founder & CEO, co-founder & CTO (MIT BS, MS), busn development (tech licensing in Dubai, family from the DR and currently based in Punta Cana), carbon certifications lead (masters in sustainability from Columbia, from Barbados, currently in NYC), engineering advisor (MIT MECHE prof), advisor (ex-MIT corp relations and current startup adviser, born and raised in Venezuela), adviser (experienced industrial engineer and process improvement, born and raised in the DR and experienced professional through the Caribbean leading operations of the Caribbean’s largest brewery), team of supervisors and operators.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable mass production of inexpensive and low-carbon housing, including changes to design, materials, and construction methods.
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicOur solution's stage of development:
PilotHow many people does your solution currently serve?
750,000 (Punta Cana)
Why are you applying to Solve?
For the next 12 month we expect to have expanded operation within the Dominican Republic through the grant of a public/private tender to cover all Punta Cana. We also expect to have close a contract in Antigua and be launching operations in the next 5 months. We expect to have shipped out the first export container to Finland and Barbados to companies that will be using the seaweed as raw material. We are also working to start the certification process for carbon credits by sinking the seaweed in the open ocean.
For scaling through the Caribbean, we have considered taking a licensing approach in which we partner with local stakeholders to provide the service to the tourism industry and/or local government. SOS Carbon will be providing the hardware, technical knowledge, training, and ongoing support
For these, we plan to have founding in 3 forms. First, through prepayments of the service contracts which will allow us to get the CAPEX. Second, through ongoing revenue from the operations. Third, from a seed round to cover team expansion, the carbon credits (for which we already have the technology developed), and other areas of growth.
Solve will be a great resource in connecting us with potential local partners and entrepreneurs interested in sustainability, environmental and social impact, and climate action to launch service operations Caribbean wide. Solve will connect us with local and international governments, and tourism sector organizations in need of our systems. Solve will help us connect with strategic partners and investors who will join our mission of mitigating climate crisis through long-term storage of carbon utilizing the oceans and invasive seaweed which affect natural ecosystems, human health, local communities, and tourism.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Human Capital (e.g. sourcing talent, board development, etc.)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Andres Bisono Leon, CEO
What makes your solution innovative?
SOS Carbon technologies and systems offer a significant advantages to dealing with the problem and then in creating other chains of value. First, The LCM is the ultimate long-term solution to sargassum collection for the tourism industry and civilians. Given that this system uses artisanal boats to collect the seaweed at sea, it allows the formal employment of the fishermen and community members. Given the type of equipment, it also allows the deployment of the most cost-effective operation to avoid sargassum from making landfall reducing costs to the tourism sector and local governments while avoiding tourism loss. Also, this method allows the use of the seaweed as raw material given that it is harvested in the sea. One product that is currently being developed by multiple collaborator and allies, is organic liquid fertilizer. This is a billion dollar industry.
On the other hand, the SOS Carbon system, for open ocean seaweed sinking is also the first of its kind. It has proven that cost-effective technologies can be deployed to fight climate change through innovative and long-term measures of carbon capture. Sinking sargassum in the open ocean can sequester millions of tons of carbon and methane yearly.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
In the next 12 month we expect to have expanded operation within the Dominican Republic through the grant of a public/private tender to cover all Punta Cana. We also expect to have close a contract in Antigua and be launching operations in the next 5 months. We expect to have shipped out the first export container to Finland and Barbados to companies that will be using the seaweed as raw material. We are also working to start the certification process for carbon credits by sinking the seaweed in the open ocean. For scaling through the Caribbean, we plan in taking a licensing approach in which we partner with local stakeholders to provide the service to the tourism industry and/or local government. SOS Carbon will be providing the hardware, technical knowledge, training, and ongoing support
In the next 5 years, we plan to be covering 80% of the countries affected by sargassum invasion including the biggest markets (Dominican Republic, Mexico, USA, Jamaica). Also, we plan to already have obtained the carbon certifications and be executing the SOS Carbon system for sinking seaweed in the open ocean in at least the Dominican Republic. We plan to have a first barge that takes all the seaweed collected in the coasts of Punta Cana to then sink them in destined zones. Through this we will started having a global impact to reduce thousands if not millions of tons of carbon per year.We will also further expand our social and environmental impact platforms through the Caribbean to drive real change regionally and globally.
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
There are several ways that we can measure progress, below are couple of them:
- Coastal coverage with our systems to avoid sargassum invasions. This translates into a direct positive environmental impact for goal #6, 11, 13, 14, 15
- Number of clients (both tourism sector and local governments)
- Amount of sargassum collected and safely disposed and/or used as raw material
- Amount of carbon avoided from being released back from the sargassum rotting on the beaches after making landfall
- Caribbean countries capabilities to have internal infrastructure and capabilities to fight environmental problems as well as export tools used for climate action. Goal #9
- Amount of direct employment hired by SOS Carbon and indirectly by other related organizations / processes. Goal #1, 8, and 10
- Growth on the alliances and collaboration network with other organizations from all sectors: public, private, academic. Goal #17
What is your theory of change?
Through the LCM system for collecting invasive sargassum at sea and the SOS Carbon system we expect the following impact on the problem based on what we have accomplished:
- Reduce cleanup and environmental repair costs for the tourism sector and local governments
- Avoid the irreversible damage to the coastal and marine ecosystems in its biodiversity, and sustainability
- Eliminate the 35% in yearly tourism loss on the major tourism destinations across the Caribbean.
- Eliminate the environmental impact and ecosystem loss caused by sargassum invasions
- Add more than 10,000 direct employments to the local communities by just covering 10% of the Caribbean coastline
- Provide millions of tons of sargassum for processing companies into value-add products like: compost, liquid fertilizer,
- Sequester more than 2,000,000 tons of carbon per year (by just covering 10% of the Caribbean coastline)
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Academic Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9410/1/1/4/htm
LCM system Video: https://youtu.be/nj3XlvP0Af4
SOS Carbon system Video: https://youtu.be/lQJlionZ9qc
The LCM system is a hardware that mounts of artisanal boats for collecting the sargassum at sea. The system has two loops on each side to which nets get straps to collect the seaweed. Once filled, the nets get removed and an empty one is placed. Nets are towed via water to an extraction point. At such location the nets are taken by the ground team to either a processing site or a safe disposal destination. Through the deployment of the LCM system we provide formal employment to local artisanal fishermen in the operation of harvesting sargassum at sea (before the seaweed makes landfall) and allowing the use of it as raw material.
The SOS Carbon system is the easiest and highest value-added method of sargassum disposal. A first of its kind technology for sequestering sargassum seaweed in the ocean. Sargassum, like other macroalgae and microalgae, plays a natural role in oceanic carbon sequestration. SOS Carbon system provides the most value added for global impact by sequestering the carbon contained on the algae.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new technology
How do you know that this technology works?
Academic Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9410/1/1/4/htm
Recent Interviews: https://news-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/2022/mit-entrpreneurs-think-globally-act-locally-0225
https://phyconomy.net/articles/sos-carbon-caribbean-sargassum/
SOS Carbon is the result of 2+ years of R&D at MIT Mechanical engineering department. After the validation of both the LCM and SOS Carbon systems, SOS Carbon made a spinoff from MIT.
SOS Carbon has worked with major tourism group of the Dominican Republic, Grupo Puntacana and Clud Med Punta Cana. SOS has also worked with the Ministry of Environment in the DR. We successfully collected more than 3.5 million pounds of sargassum in 5 months of operation in 2021. During this period, organization also provided formal employment to more than 15 artisanal fishermen and trained more than 50. Along with the robustness of the system, low capex and opex, high volume capacity, the initial 5 months of operations proved that the LCM system is the most cost-efficient method to avoid sargassum landfall and be easily scale across the Caribbean while integrating the local fishermen in the operations and turning a problem into many chains of value. We are currently working to export first shipments of sargassum to Finland and St. Lucia, locations where partners process sargassum and then sell the end product.
Our team is working to expand business models: service and licensing of the LCM system, and the carbon certifications to then obtain carbon credits from sinking sargassum as a disposal mechanism.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
How many people work on your solution team?
Leading team: 2 full-time, 2 part-time. Ops: 8 full-time. Sales/Busn Dev: 2 part-time. Advisors: 4 Co-founder & CEO (MIT Sloan, DR native, engineering), co-founder & CTO (MIT BS, MS), busn development (tech licensing in Dubai, family from the DR), carbon certifications lead (masters in sustainability from Columbia, from Barbados), engineering advisor (MIT MECHE prof), advisor (ex MIT corp relations and current startup adviser), advisors (experienced industrial engineer and process improvement), team of supervisors and operators
How long have you been working on your solution?
since mid 2018
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
Given the level of impact caused by sargassum seaweed across the Caribbean and globally, SOS Carbon generated an array of impact and specially in generating opportunities for the local communities through equitable and inclusive opportunities. SOS Carbon’s Littoral Collection Module (LCM) system has proven to be the first complete solution providing cost-effective collection to stop the seaweed from making landfall. The LCM system is a hardware that mounts, without the need of modifications, to artisanal boats. While this robustness offers many advantages it also allows the inclusion of the local fishermen under the operation. Each boat requires 5 personnel and covers up to 1,000 meters of coast. Only in the Dominican Republic, SOS Carbon can create more than 400 new direct formal employments. More than 10,000 direct employments to local fishermen can be created across the Caribbean by deploying the LCM system in just 10% of the affected Caribbean coastline. The local fishermen have been a marginalized community. They have been left adjacent to any economic development and most of the time the only options they have left to sustain themselves is to pray and destroy the marine ecosystems. SOS Carbon is changing that by also making them part of the solution of a problem that affect their activities and operations (sargassum kills fishes and affects the vessel’s motors). In Punta Cana, DR, have provided formal employment to more than 15 artisanal fishermen and trained more than 50.
Additionally, many other chains of value are being developed and expanded by using sargassum as raw material (eg. for: organic liquid fertilizer, compost, biogas, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals). Partners, like Grogenics Inc, develops compost from sargassum. They have been using such compost to involve local women in gardening to then sell the produces in the local villages.
What is your business model?
- Servicing tourism industry and local governments (validated, doing this currently)
- Licensing the LCM system through the Caribbean (either to a local operator which will then provide the services or directly to the end user in the tourism sector or government).
- Selling sargassum as raw material (in the works) and will then be incorporating the processing and valorization under our own structure.
- Selling carbon credits after sequestering carbon and methane by sinking sargassum (working on getting the certifications to then move into selling the credits, tech is done)
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Organizations (B2B)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
On the short-term we are pursuing a sustainable and solid growth by providing environmental service to the tourism industry and local governments (validated, doing this currently) through the LCM system. Also, we are starting the licensing model of the LCM in Antigua directly to one of the largest tourism groups in the country.
Second, we are starting the selling process of sargassum as raw material to partners that do the processing and then valorization. Our mid-term plan, once having harvesting scale, is to then incorporate the processing and valorization under our own platform.
Third, in the mid to long-term, we plan to sale of carbon credits after sequestering carbon and methane by sinking sargassum in the open ocean. We are currently working on getting the certifications to then move into selling the credits. The technology has been developed.
In parallel to all this, we are also working to get support from local and international governments as well as international agencies like UNEP and other sources of possible grant. Support from programs, including this opportunity, will be very useful to help us accomplish our mission of building a sustainable platform generating local, regional and global impact at all levels.
Solution Team
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AB
Andres Bisono Leon SOS Carbon | MIT Sloan
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Our Organization
SOS Carbon