On September 11 he left a lasting impression in Stephen Beaton, and like many others of his generation, he joined the army.
But at the United States Air Force Academy, its trip took a little turn. There, their chemistry studies deepened their interest in liquid fuels. “As a product of September 11, seeing the increase in oil prices, I always thought: ‘How could we replace fossil fuels?’ I thought it was important for national security. ”
Beaton’s passion took him to Oxford for a doctorate and after returning to the United States, where he had a series of positions with the United States Air Force, including leading research projects, monitoring the quality of fossil fuels of the fossil fuels of the branch and supervise R&D investments in energy.
After leaving the army, Beaton wanted to find a focused company, you guessed it, creating liquid fuels. “I’ve always been obsessed with fuels.” But there was a problem: “Fuel is a first terrible product,” he said.
“Fuel is a merchandise. It is very cheap. The fossil fuel industry has been really optimizing for the scale and cost, ”added Beaton. “Your first product must be one that is like a high margin luxury product: the Tesla Roadster approach. But ideally, it cannot be too far from the way to make the fuel. “
Beaton says his startup, Circularity fuelHe has found that market: laboratory diamonds. The diamonds are pure carbon, and the chemical process used to make them requires methane that is almost completely free of impurities.
“That methane generally sells between 100 and 300 times the price of natural gas,” he said, which is between $ 40,000 and $ 80,000 per ton.
Circularity causes methane to combine hydrogen with co -carbon2. That idea is not novel, but the way the company does. Plenty of companies They are trying to transform carbon dioxide captured into fuel, but the process is often too expensive to challenge fossil fuels in the price. Beaton admits that circularity cannot compete with most fossil fuels today, but if the company can climb its unique reactor, he believes he has an opportunity in the near future.
The secret of the startup is a special catalyst that is more selective, which means that it makes more than the target molecule, methane and less unwanted things. And the special reactor he designed can capture carbon and make methane without the need for separate vessels. The reactor can be heated rapidly, so the catalyst reaches its maximum efficiency faster, and reuses the heat of the residues of the reaction that creates methane to feed the carbon capture equipment.
In total, the circularity process uses 40% less energy than competition2“Beaton said Beaton.
Because the catalyst is so selective, circularity can make 99.9999% of pure methane at cheaper pilot scale than fossil fuels, he said. “Even at current hydrogen prices from $ 5,000 to $ 7,000 per ton, we are profitable,” he said.
“We imagine taking those same concepts and expanding them for methane, natural gas, synthetic natural gas, as well as other products,” said Beaton. The company wants to boost the price of thickening to the point where they can steal fossil fuel market share.
The reactor is designed to be modular, which allows methane and electronic fuel to be performed where necessary, saving transport costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions of leak infrastructure. That is part of what promoted DCVCs investment, said partner Zack Bogue to TechCrunch. “The current way of extracting and transporting natural gas is so permeable that we are actually better burning coal,” he said.
The circularity was recently announced as a winning ARPA-E, and the company is currently going through the Final Contract negotiations. The company incubated DCVC, where Beaton is a residence entrepreneur, and the firm provided funds prior to the seeds. Between ARPA-E and subsidies from the California Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation and the Stanford Tomkat Center for Sustainable Energy, the company has received $ 4.9 million in subsidies and awards.