Turning CO₂ into E-fuels with General Galactic

Halen Mattison and Luke Neise are co-founders at General Galactic. 

General Galactic is a seed-stage e-fuels startup out of El Segundo in the Los Angeles area that converts captured CO₂ into synthetic fuels, starting with natural gas. They claim that their end product is a carbon-neutral drop-in replacement for natural gas that can run in all of today's vast gas infrastructure. In their view, any company or country can in theory become a gas producer. 

The two founders met at Stanford and went on to early careers in aerospace, Halen at SpaceX and Luke at Varda Space Industries. As they'll share, the vision for General Galactic was ultimately inspired by technologies that are used in space today, which they felt could help solve the energy transition here on Earth.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [1:43] The origin of the name General Galactic (GG)
• [3:07] Halen and Luke’s backgrounds
• [7:00] An overview of GG
• [8:14] How GG’s technology leverages existing infrastructure
• [14:15] GG and its connection to SAF
• [16:55] How GG chose to focus on natural gas
• [19:18] Differences between CNG and RNG
• [22:44] An overview of LNG
• [26:06] The Jones Act and its impact on fuel transportation
• [28:14] GG’s drop-in replacement and its economic implications
• [31:02] The footprint of GG’s “Genesis modules”
• [34:49] The importance of location for GG’s hardware
• [38:05] Addressing methane emissions concerns
• [40:19] GG’s technology readiness and commercialization pathways
• [42:11] GG’s business model and go-to-market strategy
• [45:12] GG’s financing to date
• [49:20] Who GG wants to connect with

Additional Resources:

• Our World in Data - Energy Mix
• Estimates of Methane Emissions by Segment in the United States

*The claims made in this episode are based on current research and theoretical models. Real-world impact will depend on factors like scalability, infrastructure readiness, and policy support. We encourage listeners to stay curious, explore further resources, and engage in the evolving conversation around these solutions.

Episode recorded on Nov 7, 2024 (Published on Jan 30, 2025)

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant