Siluria Technologies unveils next step in natural gas-to-liquid fuels

March 23, 2014 |

Fuels based on Siluria’s technology projected to “dramatically reduce the cost, complexity and overall emissions” of transportation fuels.

In California, Siluria Technologies debuted its development unit for producing liquid fuels from natural gas based on Siluria’s proprietary oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and ethylene-to-liquid (ETL) technologies.

Earlier this year, Siluria announced that it will build an OCM demonstration plant at Braskem’s site in La Porte, Texas. Braskem is one of the leading producers of ethylene and plastics in the Americas. Siluria and Braskem have also entered into a relationship to explore commercialization of this technology. The OCM demonstration plant will begin operations later this year.

Siluria’s Hayward ETL facility and the La Porte OCM demonstration plant are the last scale-up steps prior to full commercialization of Siluria’s technology platform, which is now planned for the 2017 time frame.

Siluria plans to deploy its technology in a range of commercial settings, including existing ethylene producing plants, at ethylene consuming sites, upstream gas monetization, natural gas midstream plants, as well as world-scale deployments. Siluria process dramatically reduces the cost, complexity and emissions associated with the production of these higher value products across the energy spectrum.

Siluria’s OCM and ETL technologies are a means of transforming methane—the principle ingredient in natural gas and renewable methane—into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other liquid fuels. Unlike the high-temperature, high-pressure cracking processes employed today to produce fuels and chemicals, Siluria’s process employs catalytic processes to create longer-chain, higher-value materials, thereby dramatically reducing operating costs and capital.

At commercial scale, Siluria’s process will enable refiners and fuel manufacturers to produce transportation fuels that cost considerably less than today’s petroleum-based fuels, while reducing overall emissions, NOx, sulfur and particulate matter.. Fuels made with Siluria’s processes are also compatible with existing vehicles, pipelines and other infrastructure and can be integrated into global supply chains.

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