September 11 left a lasting impression of Stephen Beaton, and like many others in his generation, he joined the military.
But in the US Air Force Academy, his journey took a little turn. There, his chemistry study deepened his interest in liquid fuel. “As a product of September 11, seeing the spike in oil prices, I always thought, 'How can we replace fossil fuels?' I thought it was important for national security. ”
Beaton's lust brought him to Oxford for a PhD then returned to the US where he had a string of posts with the US Air Force, including leading research projects, tracking the quality of fossil fuels of branch, and administers R&D investments in energy.
After leaving the military, Beaton wants to find a company that is dedicated, you guessed it, creating liquid fuel. “I'm always obsessed with fuel.” But there is one problem: “Fuel is a terrible first product,” he said.
“Fuel is a commodity. Its very cheap. The fossil fuel industry has had 150 years to actually be able to be completed for scale and cost,” Beaton added. “Your first product must be one like that A high-margin product luxury-the approach to the Tesla Roadster. But ideally, it's not too far from the fuel -making path. “
Beaton says his start, Circularity fuelsThat market was found: diamonds with age lab. Diamonds are pure carbon, and the chemical process used to make them require methane almost completely without impurities.
“That methane usually sells anywhere from 100 to 300 times the price of natural gas,” he said, between $ 40,000 and $ 80,000 a ton.
The circular produces methane by incorporating hydrogen with carbon from CO2. That idea is not a novel, but the company's way is about it. Many of Companies Trying to transform the captured carbon dioxide back into the fuel, but the process is often too expensive to challenge fossil fuels in price. Beaton admits that circularity cannot compete with most fossil fuels today, but if the company can measure its unique reactor, he thinks it has an opportunity in the near future.
The secret of startup is a special catalyst that is more selective, which means that it makes more than the target molecule, methane, and less of the unwanted things. And the special reactor it designed can capture carbon and make methane without the need for separate vessels. The reactor can heat up so that the catalyst hits the efficiency of its climax faster, and it accepts the waste of heat from the reaction that creates methane to empower carbon extraction equipment.
SABI -sa, the circularity process uses 40% less energy than competing CO2-to-fuel path, Beaton said.
Because the catalyst was selected, the circular could make 99.9999% pure methane on the pilot scale cheaper than fossil fuels, he said. “Even with the current hydrogen price of $ 5,000 to $ 7,000 a ton, we earn,” he said.
“We thought about getting the same concepts and scaving them for methane, natural gas, synthetic natural gas, as well as other products,” Beaton said. The company wants to drive the price of e-fuels to the point where they can steal market sharing from fossil fuels.
The reactor is designed to be modular, allowing methane and e-fuel to be made where necessary, saving transportation costs and cutting greenhouse gas leaks from leaky infrastructure. That is part of what led to DCVCS investment, partner Zack Bogue said in Techcrunch. “The current way of getting and carrying natural gas is so leaky that we are really better at burning coal,” he said.
Circularity has recently been announced as an ARPA-E awardee, and the company is currently undergoing final contract negotiations. The company was consumed at the DCVC, where Beaton was a businessman-in-residential businessman, and the firm provided pre-seed funds. Between the ARPA-E and grants from the California Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, and Stanford Tomkat Center for Sustainable Energy, the company received $ 4.9 million in grants and awards.
