Craig Bettenhausen

Baltimore

Reporter at C&EN

Staff reporter at Chemical & Engineering News. I make businesspeople talk about science and scientists talk about business. All opinions my own.

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Articles

EPA's Safer Choice survives, diminished

3 weeks ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

After facing the threat of cancellation, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program, which supports the use of environmentally friendly and low-toxicity consumer product ingredients, will live on, though with less independence than it had. Under a new structure at the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the Safer Choice program will go from being independent to operating as part of the office's New Chemicals division.
Chemistry in Pictures: Color control

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

This red light isn't for romantic ambience. Charles University researcher Martin Orságh says the color lets him control a reaction called radical RAFT (reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer) polymerization. Orságh and collaborators are developing a system of photocatalysts and monomers that lets them switch between radical and cationic mechanisms just by changing the color of the light.
Liquor for the hangover prone and impatient

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

Hangovers from alcohol overconsumption have been part of the human experience for the entirety of recorded history. We nonetheless have a limited understanding of the biochemistry behind the morning-after blues and rely mostly on folk remedies to cope with them. One treatment that seems to help is to drink electrolytes. A pharmacy in Europe might hand you betaine citrate or an effervescent, buffered potassium chloride-sodium chloride tablet.
Green hydrogen is still making gains

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

Green hydrogen, which is made by splitting water with renewable energy, sometimes seems like a long-shot solution to climate change. But despite political and economic headwinds, the low-carbon chemical feedstock and fuel is making some gains-especially in Europe-in the form of subsidies, investments, and deployed projects. The nascent industry has struggled in recent months as the Donald J.
ChEmpower raises $18.7 million for microchip polishing tech

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

The electronic chemical start-up ChEmpower has raised $18.7 million in a series A funding round to advance its abrasive-free system for polishing and planarizing silicon wafers during semiconductor manufacturing. The investment was led by the venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, which supplies chemicals to the semiconductor industry, and included participation by Intel and the semiconductor toolmaker Tokyo Electron.
Oxy buys direct air capture firm Holocene

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) has purchased the direct-air-capture (DAC) company Holocene for an undisclosed sum. This is the energy company's second recent purchase of a carbon capture firm; in 2023, it bought Carbon Engineering for $1.1 billion. Both DAC firms use forms of chemical looping to remove carbon dioxide from the ambient air as a pure, concentrated stream that can be injected into geological storage or sold.
Personal care pulls away from synthetic polymers

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

The personal care industry has for years sought ingredients that can claim a natural origin, and part of that effort is finding alternatives to synthetic polymers. At In-Cosmetics Global 2025, a trade show for cosmetics and personal care ingredients held in Amsterdam this week, several chemical makers launched or featured biobased alternatives to personal care polymers.
Climate-friendly concrete

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

By It's hard to beat the scale of concrete. Humanity makes 30 billion metric tons per year, mostly through a process that emits massive amounts of CO 2. Researchers and entrepreneurs are working on ways to turn that around and make concrete with a milder impact on climate change.
There's science at South by Southwest

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

A chemist said hello as we both got off the plane in Austin, Texas, headed for South by Southwest. She'd seen my C&EN hat and correctly guessed that I work for the magazine. Her greeting was a sign that I had come to Austin for the right reason. South by Southwest, or SXSW, is best known as a music, film, and comedy festival.
Graphitic Energy starts up turquoise hydrogen pilot

Mar 18, 2025 | cen.acs.org | Craig Bettenhausen

The methane pyrolysis start-up Graphitic Energy has commissioned a pilot plant in San Antonio, Texas, that can convert natural gas into 1 metric ton (t) of solid carbon and several hundred kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen per day. Graphitic is paying for the trial with $15 million it recently raised as an extension of its series A funding round. The pilot is taking place at the Southwest Research Institute, a nonprofit with an emphasis on energy and chemicals, and will run through the end of 2025.