PORTFOLIO

Every year, breweries and wineries in Switzerland emit around 25,000 tonnes of biogenic carbon dioxide (CO ) from fermentation. At the same time, breweries purchase roughly the same amount of fossil-based CO for their operations. Biomethane plants release up to 60,000 tonnes of CO unused into the atmosphere. Circea’s mission is to upcycle these abundant yet wasted resources of biogenic CO into a valuable product for the Food & Beverage (F&B) and agricultural sectors, combining innovative recovery, compression, and purification technologies with the creation of local market outlets.
By starting with breweries and wineries, Circea demonstrates the feasibility of recovering and reusing small-scale CO streams as a sustainable ingredient, achieving recovery rates of up to 85%. Beyond these first pilots, the company is extending its model to biomethane plants, which provide larger, year-round sources of CO . Circea’s approach rests on three pillars: (1) technological solutions adapted to decentralized production sites, (2) the development of local networks linking CO producers and users, and (3) optimized processes ensuring logistics, traceability, and product quality.
The ambition is clear: to eliminate imports of fossil CO in Switzerland by building regional ecosystems for bio-CO valorization. In doing so, Circea reduces dependence on fossil resources, enhances supply chain resilience for manufacturers, and contributes to the transition toward a defossilized and circular economy.

The project started in 2023 with a partner winemaker in Valais/Wallis, through the development of a prototype thanks to the Innobooster Living Labs for Decarbonisation, to test the technical feasibility of capturing the CO2 and do the first analyses on the quality of the gas and impact on the wine (CO2 >99% vol.). With the First Ventures VALIDATE support and funding from the Canton of Vaud, Circea could create its first pilot project and install in 2025 a system to collect, purify, store and distribute CO2 - in order to validate its MVP in a brewery near Lausanne (La Nébuleuse) and prepare for deployment in wineries. In collaboration with the BFH/HAFL, new projects have also been developed to apply this solution in the biogas sector (for e.g. in the Canton of Jura), as well as find synergies with greenhouses (to replace fossil CO2 by bio-CO2 produced locally). The start-up Circea has been officially founded beginning of 2024. Having confirmed the interest of wineries and breweries, Circea is now expanding the deployment of its CO -recovery solution and strengthening collaborations with academia and companies to build a circular carbon economy.