This release is available in Spanish.
For the first time, the University Business Incubator at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has organised the Think Big business ideas competition, directed to students and lecturers at the Leioa (Bizkaia) campus. Of the 30 ideas presented, the honour of first prize went to Mr Alain San José (Deusto, 1984), a Biology student. The winning project is closely linked to his studies: "The main idea is to use microalgae in order to treat and purify sewage water". The proposal, known as Bio-Tech, put forward by Mr San José earned him 4,000 euros cash and, who knows, maybe one day in the future, he will be able to put his idea into practice.
"In my second degree year at university I began to think that maybe something could be done with algae, some kind of business or enterprise, but I did not give it more thought. Until the last -and my final- course when one day my Marine Ecology lecturer gave us a talk about the competition", said Mr San José, explaining how his idea came about. His sister was the person who made him take up the idea: "This is Business Studies. She found out about what the prize involved and suggested that maybe the algae idea would be a good one and that she would help me on the economic-business side of things".
It simply involved three pages presenting the idea, its possible applications and the budget and other resources required to carry it out. In fact, he has it in mind to take the idea further and to verify if, in effect, the idea is viable: "I would like to research into this. Here, moreover, it is a topic that is gathering more and more interest. What with the purification treatment of the Bilbao estuary, there has been much research which has given positive results. I believe that microalgae can improve the water even more".
Even cleaner
In effect, Mr San José believes that microalgae can prove useful in the final phase of water purification treatment, "for the water to be even cleaner. For example, in the estuary, the water is highly treated, but not totally. I believe that it is here that it could be very useful". He suggests the microalgae be placed at the exit of the main sewers but emphasises that this is still only at the conjecture stage and trials would have to be undertaken.
In any case, he has good reason to believe that his hypotheses are well-founded, given that, according to what he discovered from the literature investigated for his degree project, there are countries carrying out research on certain species of microalgae, although there are no concrete projects as yet. He was surprised when he saw a news item in this regard on the TV, subsequent to having the idea: "it reported the idea of genetic manipulation to produce a type of algae that could treat and purify water. I believe it to be a field which is going to develop".
What also surprised him —at the record or documentation analysis stage— was how little commercially exploited the microalgae sector in the Basque Country is, "I realised that there was no enterprise involved with algae, not one that financially benefited from algae. It surprised me a lot. In Galicia there was, and in Asturias too, but here in the Basque Country there was nothing. Why was there no business-related activity involving algae here, being a region beside the sea?"
Interest from BEAZ
One of the aims of the Think Big competition is to support the prize-winners in order to carry out their presented enterprise ideas. In fact, one of the bodies represented on the competition judging panel, BEAZ (belonging to the Provincial Government of Bizkaia to support the creation and development of new innovative enterprises in the Province), has shown interest in Bio-Tech. "They do have centres able to carry out research in this and they can even give you a laboratory and finance you", stated Mr San José.