Graz, Steiermark, Österreich
Member Since 2023
About my Start-up

Econutri is a Graz-based startup company that developed an innovative bio-process to utilize CO2 and produce proteins in a sustainable way. Our special microorganisms grow in a highly efficient gas fermentation process and eventually form a biomass consisting of up to 80% high quality proteins. These can be processed for various purposes. Applications will be animal feed proteins in the fisrt phase and human food proteins in a second phase.

Why your idea is a “winner"?:

The concept's greatest strengths are its contributions to addressing the growing global challenges of carbon emissions, increasing demand for arable land, and unsustainable fisheries management. One of the biggest challenges of our time is certainly the high emission of CO2 and the lack of solutions to recycle it into recyclable products in an ecologically sound way. With our innovative process, we offer a sensible and sustainable way to contribute to the resource-saving coverage of the increasing demand for protein. Since our process uses CO2 as a nutrient for the microorganisms employed, we can offer a sustainable solution for reducing CO2 emissions. In addition, our concept offers a solution to counteract the increasing major damage in the oceans caused by severe overfishing by providing a substitute for fishmeal. Most importantly, our process helps to preserve agricultural land for protein production, thus curbing the excessive destruction of virgin forest areas. In our production process, we can eliminate the use of pesticides and significantly reduce the use of fertilizers. In addition, our process requires around 99% less water than conventional soy production.

What is your current or intended business/revenue model?:

We will be selling the protein B2B to animal feed and pet food producers in a first phase. Later on we are planning to sell the protein also to human food producers as an ingredient.

Do you have any Patent or IP registered (related to the solution that you are looking for an investment)?:

We are currently preparing patent applications for the reactor design and process conditions. We doing this with the kind support of the AWS Green IP programm.

Has your technology already been implemented in any field/sector?:

We have established a pilot reactor to optimize the process conditions and gain relevant data for the design of a full size industrial plant. The build of the demo plant is planned for 2025 directly followed by a product launch with animal feed protein.

Which market and customer need(s)/problem(s) is (are) your products(s)/service(s) going to solve?:

The product is proteins, which are processed into specific end products by various downstream processes. The first step is the production of proteins for animal feed. Currently, the most commonly used protein sources for this are soy protein on the one hand and fish protein on the other. Our products are to be marketed directly to feed manufacturers as an ecologically sustainable alternative. The need for fish meal used for feed in aquaculture is rising steadily although the production volume of fish meal is decreasing due to limited recources. Our protein can directly be used as a substitute for fish protein due to its nutritional values and amino acid profile. Also the human food industry is constantly looking for alternative protein sources to cover the increasing demand for sustainable products.
On the other hand we also solve a problems for CO2 emmitting industires as we can directly use their CO2 output as a valuable recource in our process.

Trl
TRL 4 – technology validated in labTRL 5 – technology validated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
Candidate Overview

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