KRAJETE GMBH

Their core work

Krajete GmbH is an Austrian technology SME specialising in gas capture, purification, and conversion — particularly CO2. Their core work sits at the interface between gas processing engineering and biotechnology: they contribute capture and purification modules that feed CO2 into downstream electrochemical or microbial conversion processes. Across their H2020 projects they have worked on converting CO2 into value-added chemicals such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA bioplastics), lactic acid, formic acid, methanol, and hydrogen. They are a specialist component supplier within research consortia, not a broad systems integrator.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earliest project (CELBICON, 2016), Krajete's focus was on the chemical engineering side of CO2 valorisation — electrochemical reduction to syngas, formic acid, and methanol, combined with fermentation to isoprene, PHA, and lactic acid. By ENGICOIN (2018), the electrochemical reduction keywords dropped out and the focus shifted toward engineered microbial systems, biogas integration, hydrogen, and acetone — a move from abiotic chemistry toward biological CO2 exploitation. The persistent anchors across both phases are CO2, PHA, and lactic acid, suggesting Krajete's stable core is gas capture and bio-based polymer/acid production, while their electrochemistry involvement was project-specific rather than a permanent capability.

Krajete appears to be moving from abiotic (electrochemical) CO2 conversion toward biologically driven CO2 utilisation platforms, making them a candidate partner for projects combining gas purification with synthetic biology or waste-to-chemicals biorefinery concepts.

How they like to work

Krajete has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as consortium partner, reflecting a specialist-contributor model where they bring a defined technical module (gas capture, purification, or conversion) rather than project management capacity. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 23 unique partners across 9 countries, which is a large network footprint for a company this size and suggests they are valued participants that larger consortia actively recruit. There is no evidence of repeated partner loyalty — their network appears broad rather than deep.

Krajete has collaborated with 23 unique partners across 9 countries through just two projects, an unusually broad network for a two-project SME. Their geographic spread suggests they are comfortable operating in large, multi-national RIA consortia.

What sets them apart

Krajete occupies a narrow but valuable niche: they are one of few SMEs that can bridge gas engineering (CO2 capture and purification) with downstream biological or electrochemical conversion — a combination that most pure biotech or pure chemistry firms cannot offer. For consortium builders assembling CO2-to-chemicals or carbon utilisation projects, Krajete provides a ready-made capture and pre-processing module that plugs into both biological and electrochemical reactor systems. Their SME status and Austrian location also make them attractive for consortium diversity requirements in Horizon calls targeting industrial technology readiness.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CELBICON
  Their largest project (EUR 445,269) and the most technically ambitious — combining CO2 capture, electrochemical reduction, and fermentation into a single integrated conversion chain targeting five distinct chemical products.
• ENGICOIN
  Demonstrates Krajete's ability to pivot from electrochemistry toward synthetic biology platforms, expanding their CO2 valorisation portfolio into engineered microbial factories and waste treatment integration.