Rise Reforming Turns Wasted Biogas into Valuable Chemicals with Modular Tech
Launch HN: Rise Reforming (YC S26) – Turning Waste Gases into Valuable Chemicals
We are building modular units that convert stranded biogas from wastewater plants and farms into valuable chemicals like DME and methanol on-site. By replacing fossil fuel dependence with domestic waste gases, we create a supply-secure, low-carbon alternative that competes directly with petrochemical prices. Our pilot container is now arriving at a Chicagoland facility to kick off construction, following our selection for Y Combinator's S26 batch.
The U.S. produces enough biogas to make over $20 billion worth of chemicals annually, but 60% is wasted or flared in low-margin applications.
- chemeng
This is really cool, I know a few different teams that have taken a look at similar approaches over the last 20 years, I hope you're able to make it work! I've been wanting something like this to succeed for a long time. Please take these questions (and assumptions) as earnest curiosity. I realize you may not be able to share answers if it touches anything proprietary.
On the chemistry side:
In step 1, you say using adsorbents, so i'm guessing some combo of iron oxide to desiccant to activated carbon for the siloxanes, and then maybe ZnO (based on your likely catalyst chemistry). At typical anaerobic biogas H2S concentrations, that's quite a bit of OPEX for media I imagine, and the risk of some breakthrough poisoning your reaction catalyst. Are you only working with partners that have desulfurization in place already? And how much attention do these skids need day to day, are you expecting full-time operator presence? Remote monitoring? How are you catching breakthrough before it takes out a catalyst charge?
I'm guessing bi-reforming is partly how you tune your way out of the carbon deposition problem, but in my experience real biogas composition drifts around depending on what's going into the digester, so i'm curious how much margin you actually have on the H2O/CO2/CH4 ratio before you're back in the coking regime. Are you trimming steam in real-time based on gas composition or running fixed excess (further trading economics)? Was the bench-scale test run on a simulated dyn […]
- Johnny_Bonk
Congrats! I've worked on a similar technology converting waste syngas to 3-hydroxy-butyrate for further applications. Unfortunately in my case, we couldn't see any valuable and scalable end products from that particular molecule but I'm excited to follow your journey. Best of luck!
- awad
Congrats on everything you've accomplished so far! You emphasize two-sided marketplace so, I'm wondering, from y'alls POV which side is more difficult/which side are you going after harder? Naturally you need to do both, but realistically, one side is always more challenging and more important and it's not always obvious which is which.
- possiblyburrito
Congrats on breaking ground. Curious about the electricity input side. Reforming is endothermic, so I assume the unit has a meaningful power draw. At a wastewater plant, do you run off the facility's existing service or do you need a utility upgrade, and can the unit ramp with power prices or does the catalyst want steady state? Asking because at small sites the electrical interconnection can quietly become the long pole even when the gas is free.
- ianm218
This is very cool.
I'm curious how hard the go to market in hard tech like this is? What is the long term economic model in terms of what you think the margin can be and what the incentives for plants to adopt this technology?