YCS26· OtherRise Reforming
We turn waste gases into supply-secure chemicals
Founders
Not read from YC yet; the weekly run fills these in.
Same space
Adjacent
Overlapping tags, a different niche.
RewbiS24A stealth mode startup.Shared: renewable energy, climatetechActive
MeteoricS26Drones that clear clouds over solar farms and weaken hurricanesShared: renewable energy, climatetechActive
Nira EnergyW22Software to find the best sites for renewables on the electrical gridShared: renewable energy, climatetechActive
RUUFW23Managed marketplace for solar in LatamShared: renewable energy, climatetechActive
AstroW25The world’s first AI energy developerShared: renewable energy, climatetechActive
Also from S26
Batchmates in Summer 2026.
83 SciencesS26AI-native materials discovery powered by unpublished experimental dataActive
BaudS26AI chips for ultra-fast training and inferenceActive
DaqstraS26AI-native test infrastructure layer for hardware companiesActive
Dipole LabsS26AI-controlled optical switching for AI clustersActive
Ekho LabsS26World Model for FreightActive
Frontier ComputingS26Frontier grows scalable biological brains as an ML training substrateActive
About Rise Reforming
Geopolitical conflicts and natural disasters frequently expose the vulnerability of the American chemical industry. The reason? Production is centralized and fossil fuel-dependent. The solution? Localized production using an undervalued resource: biogas. The US produces enough biogas to make over $20 bn/y worth of chemicals, but 60% is wasted in low-margin applications or flared altogether. Rise Reforming is commercializing a modular process to transform this underutilized biogas on-site into cheap, supply-secure chemicals. Our beachhead market is dimethyl ether (DME), used as an aerosol propellant and a low-carbon fuel additive in propane. Our target market is methanol: an established billion $ chemical and the future of low-carbon shipping. We're doing our pilot project at a Chicagoland wastewater plant. This will be the first wastewater biogas-to-methanol demo in the Americas. We're hiring for a senior chemical process engineer. Apply here: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rise-reforming/jobs/wJ9Q9nv-senior-chemical-process-engineer
Chicago, IL, USA
- Hard Tech
- Smart Waste Management
- Alternative Fuels
- Renewable Energy
- ClimateTech
Rise Reforming: questions
Which YC batch was Rise Reforming in?
Rise Reforming was in Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch (S26).
Is Rise Reforming still active?
Y Combinator lists Rise Reforming as active.
Where is Rise Reforming based?
Rise Reforming lists Chicago, IL, USA as its location on YC's directory.
Not affiliated with Y Combinator. From YC's public directory. Logos via logo.dev; trademarks belong to their owners.