Dr. Stephen Beaton, Co-founder and CEO of Circularity Fuels, talks about transforming waste carbon into high-value fuels. With a rich background in clean fuels and military petroleum, he shares insights on shifting from diamond production to sustainable aviation fuel. The podcast dives into the innovative process of using high-purity methane to revolutionize fuel production, explores military energy solutions, and highlights the benefits of biogas in creating carbon-negative jet fuel. It's a fascinating look at the future of sustainable energy.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Personal Origin Story
Stephen Beaton traced his motivation back to 9/11 and his brother's deployments, which made him want to reduce reliance on oil.
That childhood drive led him to study fuels, join the Air Force Academy, and pursue a PhD in hydrogen catalysis at Oxford.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Running Deployed Fuel QC
Stephen described running the Air Force's deployed petroleum quality control lab in the Middle East and testing jet fuel properties.
He checked long-term storage, volatility, and whether fuel still met performance specs after months in large tanks.
insights INSIGHT
SAF As A Resilience Play
The Air Force sees on-site synthetic fuel production as resilience, not just sustainability.
Dr. Stephen Beaton is Co-founder and CEO of Circularity Fuels, which develops compact reactors that turn waste carbon streams into high-value fuels and chemicals. Rather than compete with fossil fuels from the start, Stephen identified high-purity methane for lab-grown diamonds as a beachhead market—where Circularity’s product is 80–90% cheaper than incumbents while proving the core technology needed for clean liquid fuels.
Stephen earned a chemistry PhD at Oxford and built deep expertise in synthetic fuels during his U.S. Air Force career, including overseeing jet fuel quality control in the Middle East and launching the Air Force’s e-fuels program. His insight: build a fuels company that doesn’t begin with fuel.
Today, Circularity Fuels operates demonstration reactors in diamond facilities and is scaling toward biogas-to-SAF production using the same reactor platform. The company has raised $3M in venture funding, including from DCVC, plus $5M in grants from ARPA-E, NSF, and the California Energy Commission. MCJ is proud to be an investor.
Episode recorded on Aug 12, 2025 (Published on Sept 16, 2025)
In this episode, we cover:
[03:09] Dr. Beaton’s background in clean fuels
[07:31] His work with Air Force petroleum in the Middle East
[10:12] A brief overview of hydrocarbons
[13:08] ESAF as resilience for Pacific operations
[16:22] What e-SAF really means and why it matters
[19:24] Circularity Fuels’ origin story
[21:20] The company’s three principles
[23:04] High-purity methane for diamonds as a beachhead
[27:46] Recycling diamond exhaust with microwave-sized reactors
[30:40] Building a fuel company without fuel as the initial product
[34:35] Hardware sales vs metered methane service model
[39:05] Biogas-to-SAF pathway via Fischer-Tropsch
[42:38] Circularity’s progress to date
[44:01] Competing with fossil jet and carbon removals
[48:41] How Circularity secured non-dilutive funding
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