September 11 left a permanent impression on Stephen Beaton, and like many of his generation, he joined the army.
But at the US Air Force Academy, his trip took a turn. There, his chemistry studies deepen his interest in liquid fuel. “As a product of September 11, seeing the rise in oil prices, I always believed:” How could we replace fossil fuels? “I thought it was important for national security.”
Beaton’s passion took him to Oxford for a doctorate, then back to the US, where he had a series of positions with US Air Force, including top research projects, monitoring the quality of fossil fuels in the industry and overseeing R & R&D investments D in energy.
After leaving the army, Beaton wanted to find a company focused, you guessed it, creating liquid fuels. “I always get obsessed with fuel.” But there was a problem: “Fuel is a terrible first product,” he said.
“Fuel is a commodity. It is very cheap. The fossil fuel industry has 150 years to really optimize scale and costs,” Beaton added. “Your first product should be what is like a luxury high margin product-the Tesla Roadster approach. But ideally, it can’t be too far from the path to make fuel.”
Beaton says his starting up, Cyclical fuelIt has found that the market: Laboratory diamonds. Diamonds are pure carbon and the chemical process used to make them requires methane that is almost completely free of dirt.
“This methane usually sells anywhere from 100 to 300 times the price of gas,” he said, which is between $ 40,000 and $ 80,000 per tonne.
Circularity makes methane by combining hydrogen with carbon from CO2. This idea is not a novel, but the way the company goes is. Many companies are trying to convert the captive carbon dioxide back into fuel, but the process is often too expensive to challenge fossil fuels at price. Beaton admits that circularity cannot compete with most fossil fuels today, but if the company can escalate its only reactor, it believes it has an opportunity in the near future.
The secret of starting is a special catalyst that is more selective, which means it makes the target molecule, methane and less than unwanted things. And the special reactor he designed can capture carbon and methane without the need for separate boats. The reactor can be heated quickly, so that the catalyst hits its top performance faster and reuse heat from the reaction that creates methane to supply carbon capture equipment.
Overall, the process of Circularity uses 40% less energy than CO Competing2-On paths, Beaton said.
Because the catalyst is so selective, circularity can make 99,9999% pure methane on a pilot scale cheaper than fossil fuels, he said. “Even at current hydrogen values from $ 5,000 to $ 7,000 per tonne. We are profitable,” he said.
“We envision the same concepts and their escalation for methane, gas, synthetic gas, and other products,” Beaton said. The company wants to drive the price of e-fuels to the point where they can steal the market share from fossil fuels.
Circularity has recently been announced as award-winning ARPA-E and the company is currently passing through final negotiations on contracts. The company was incurred by DCVC, where Beaton is a businessman and the company provided a pre-service financing. Between ARPA-E and grants by the California Energy Committee, the National Science Foundation and Stanford Tomkat Sustainable Energy Center, the company has received $ 4.9 million in grants and awards.
The reactor is designed to be articulated, allowing for methane and electronic fuel where needed, saving the cost of transport and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from infrastructure leaks. This is part of what has led to the DCVC investment, the partner manager and co -founder Zachary Bogue in TechCrunch. “Today’s way of exporting and transporting natural gas is so leak that we are really better than burning carbon,” he said.
