BIOWEG has raised €1.5 million to accelerate the development of a sustainable platform for recovering Rare Earth Elements from complex, water based waste streams.
The project is being developed in collaboration with Technische Universität Berlin and is supported by Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND, through its Tech Metal Transformation Challenge.
The initiative focuses on validating new approaches for extracting critical raw materials in ways that are environmentally sound and compatible with circular economy principles.
Turning fermentation expertise into metal recovery
BIOWEG is extending its existing fermentation and green chemistry capabilities into the field of critical metals. The company already operates fermentation systems at scale to convert food industry side streams into functional bio based materials. These same processes now form the foundation of a new waste to value platform for metal recovery.
According to BIOWEG’s leadership, the funding enables faster development of a bio based Rare Earth Element recovery process that avoids the energy intensity and chemical load of conventional extraction methods.
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A circular alternative to conventional extraction
Europe’s demand for Rare Earth Elements continues to rise, driven by electric mobility, renewable energy infrastructure, and consumer electronics. At the same time, supply remains highly concentrated geographically, exposing European industries to strategic risks.
Traditional recovery techniques typically rely on aggressive solvents, high temperatures, and non selective separation, generating significant waste and emissions. BIOWEG’s approach replaces these methods with a water based process operating at ambient conditions, combining bio derived acids with peptide based separation technologies developed at TU Berlin.
The acids used in the process are already produced as secondary outputs within BIOWEG’s fermentation platform, eliminating the need for additional processing steps and further reducing energy use and CO₂ impact.
Bridging academic research and industrial scale
The collaboration with TU Berlin connects academic research in selective peptide chemistry with industrial fermentation know how. The joint effort aims to demonstrate that metal recovery can be both highly selective and scalable without relying on harmful chemistry.
Researchers involved in the project highlight that the partnership helps translate laboratory level breakthroughs into solutions suitable for industrial deployment, supporting Europe’s ambitions for a resilient and circular metals supply.
Positioned within a broader bio based innovation wave
Across Europe, early stage investment continues to flow into fermentation driven and bio based technologies, ranging from sustainable ingredients to alternative materials. BIOWEG’s funding fits into this wider movement, focusing specifically on applying biological processes to high value industrial challenges beyond consumer products.
By expanding its waste stream platform into critical metals recovery, BIOWEG is targeting applications where low energy, selective chemistry can unlock substantially higher value while reducing environmental impact.
About BIOWEG
Founded in 2019, BIOWEG develops bio based and biodegradable materials using precision fermentation and green chemistry. The company converts industrial side streams into high performance ingredients used in personal care, home care, and agricultural applications, while continuously expanding its platform into new circular economy use cases.
