Circe BioTech
Circe is a Transformative energy technology, using natural gas to produce sustainable plastics food and feed at industrial scale. Our process is copied from nature; decaying fish and plant leaves collect at the bottom of lakes, and eventually start releasing methane which are eaten by bacteria as they bubble up towards the surface. The bacteria form small protein clumps in their cells which are the natural nutrient feed source for the wild fish. Circular, sustainable protein made from natural gas, (methane) – nature´s cycle and the technological core of Circe´s biomimicry process.
Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and safe extraction and usage techniques have been developed over almost two centuries of extraction experience. Circe is however never complacent and works tirelessly to ensure that the methane, a greenhouse gas, is examined, controlled, and managed at all points of the inbound and processing stages. This is vital as our business´s positive impact on seven of the United Nations Sustainability Goals are the fundamental drivers behind our start up vision and why we do what we do.
Circe´s bioreactors are a technological baseline for gas to value solutions using fermentation and have potential application beyond our initial protein targets. Using protein suppression techniques our scientists have been able to develop a process to make the biopolymer PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) from methane using methanotrophic bacteria. At its most simple level, this is a gas to plastics solution, a polypropylene substitute, but with a huge added advantage of being biodegradable, also in difficult environments like the sea. Combined with the potential to save our oceans from unnecessary overfishing and all the associated oceanic issues of industrial trawling, our humble fermentation technology could eradicate the growing floating plastic islands in our precious waters.
Circe is currently designing its first 5,000 litre bioreactor, from which just two more scale jumps will bring us to our final 50,000 litre proof of industrialisation, deployment Q2´23. Multiple units in series will create the first Circe Mega Site in 2024 which will produce 25,000 tonnes of protein per year which if fully substituted for fishmeal would allow 600 million more fish to carry on living in the sea, or prevent the usage of 10,000 hectares of deforested land, every single year.