The proclaimed mission of SOLBEN is to, “Promote the development and use of bioenergy integration projects aimed at improving
the quality of life of rural people and the recovery of the environment.” Daniel Gomez Iniguez started hearing about biodiesel, the alternative fuel produced from vegetable oils and animal fats, became interested and started to investigate.
“I started searching the Internet…It seemed real easy to make [biodiesel] at your home.”
-Daniel Iniquez
Daniel started his investigation at hi local university, Tecnologico de Monterrey. There he found a course on biodiesel production and began attending the class, not for credit, and joined a biodiesel club. Daniel recalls
he mostly went to the university instead of his high school. He learned enough about biodiesel to figure out how to make it from used vegetable oil and eventually compared it to making biodiesel from animal fat. After attending many biodiesel conferences throughout Mexico, Daniel became connected with several people that would eventually come to make his project a much more impressive en devour.
With three partners at his side, Daniel started a nonprofit foundation in 2009 that developed biodiesel production technology. It was extremely sucessful and brought in $150,000 in sales. Next they invested money in a for-profit
business which is Solben. Today Solben sells technology that has to do with the production of biodiesel from nonfood products like algae. This is to prevent competition with other biodiesel com
panies that use corn or sugar as their base. Solben also offers products and services that allows customers to create their own biodiesel.
In 2010 Solben brought in over $1 million in sales and they left the year with a prediction of $3 million in sales for the coming year. Solben is expanding quickly into the United States, Central America, and India.
I love how Daniel started out taking a class in an interesting field and let his passion for it grow into a successful company. I also love that Solben helps customers create their own biodiesel.