Arkeon Sets Up Pilot Production Facility and Plans Demo Facility for Scaleup

Vienna, Austria, July 6, 2023 – Biotech startup Arkeon transforms CO2 into functional protein ingredients using gas fermentation. The commissioning of a 150L pilot production plant marks an important step forward and paves the way for the company's future scaling.

Biotech startup Arkeon successfully raised over 10 million Euros in capital to date to build out its proprietary technology for the direct conversion of carbon dioxide into protein ingredients. The recently commissioned pilot production plant in Vienna's Seestadt Innovation Hub represents a significant step forward for the further development of the company’s production process and the expansion of its infrastructure. Equipped with a 150L bioreactor system, it serves to progressively improve the process and lays a solid biotechnological foundation for future large-scale production. The plant was built in cooperation with Steamtec, Böhm Stadtbaumeister & Gebäudetechnik GmbH, Kanzler-Dach, Bioengineering, RW Serviceteam, and others.

The achieved capacity of 150L forms the foundation for the next step of the scaling plan, a demo facility with a 3000L bioreactor system. “The successful implementation of our pilot production plant represents a solid basis and illustrates that our company has set up the technical foundation to unlock our production technology at large scale. It is an essential step on our way to scale to large commercial production outputs”, says Dr. Günther Bochmann, Technological Project Lead of Arkeon.

Last week, the Vienna Business Agency initiated the construction of the Technology Centre Seestadt. The project aims to provide additional production and office space for innovative startups, including Arkeon, and its upcoming demo facility plans. The commissioning of the 3000L bioreactor is scheduled for the end of 2024 and is expected to mark the company's entry into commercial production capacity. Subsequently, Arkeon plans to expand its production to full-scale bioreactors with volumes of 800 – 1,000 m3. Already now, partnerships have been established with global companies to develop new and innovative protein applications for functional food and beverage products for the food industry. 

About Arkeon GmbH (Arkeon)

Arkeon is an ingredients company, based in Vienna, Austria, leveraging the power of ancient microbes to convert CO2 directly into protein ingredients. The company's proprietary technology is a new, innovative approach to producing amino acids and functional peptides for food and lifestyle products, enabling a regenerative way to nourish people on a global scale. The company’s technological foundations have been built up over a decade of research by Co-Founders Dr. Simon Rittmann, Dr. Guenther Bochmann, and Dr. Gregor Tegl.