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

Personal care pulls away from synthetic polymers

1 week 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 weeks 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

3 weeks 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

1 month ago | 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.
Trillions of tons of hydrogen may be waiting under our feet

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

The hydrogen found underground gets there by a handful of chemical mechanisms. In the most important one, rock rich in iron(II) and magnesium comes into contact with water at elevated temperature and pressure. If conditions are right, electrons transfer from the iron to the water, resulting in molecular hydrogen, iron(III) oxides, and silica compounds.
Biosurfactant makers Dispersa and AGAE scale up

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

The biosurfactant makers Dispersa and AGAE Technologies are each scaling up production in moves that together will add more than 1,000 metric tons (t) per year of new capacity to the market for this emerging class of biobased surfactants. Biosurfactants, also called glycolipids, are surfactants with sugar groups covalently attached to fatty acid tails. Made from biomass via fermentation, the ingredients are finding use in cleaning, personal care, agriculture, and industrial products.
Tungsten carbide slice

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

Tungsten carbide is a great material, durable enough to cut most metals and withstand tough physical and chemical conditions. In most situations, if tungsten carbide isn't good enough, the next stop is diamond. Because it's so useful, researchers are working hard to understand the material's limits. University of Toronto graduate student Qimeng Yang used alumina particles to wear away at a quasicrystalline coating made from the material.
Cleaning firms fear for EPA’s Safer Choice label

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

Tuesday, February 18, 2025 Please be aware that pubs.acs.org is undergoing maintenance from Saturday February 1 to Monday Febraury 3, that may have an impact on your experience. During this time, you may not be able to access certain features like login, purchasing single articles, saving searches or running existing saved searches, modifying your e-Alert preferences, or accessing Librarian administrative functions.
Cleaning industry fears loss of EPA Safer Choice chemical program

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

Leaders across the cleaning product supply chain are sounding the alarm about the prospect of losing the Safer Choice program run by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Safer Choice is a voluntary label that identifies consumer products formulated using ingredients that have passed a rigorous set of health and environmental safety standards. Industry insiders see the program as a possible target of a Donald J. Trump administration eager to cut government spending and regulation.
Mattiq and Heraeus partner on low-iridium electrocatalysis

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

By The sustainable chemistry start-up Mattiq will work with the materials supplier Heraeus Precious Metals to develop electrocatalysts that use less iridium than conventional catalysts. Iridium is a critical component in proton-exchange membranes used to make hydrogen via electrolysis, and the element's cost is a major barrier to the scale-up of green H 2.