Braskem, a producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas, and Siluria Technologies, a US-based pioneer in the commercial production of fuels and chemicals from natural gas, have formed a collaboration for the direct conversion of methane in natural gas to ethylene, a feedstock used by the petrochemical industry.

Siluria's proprietary oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) technology provides multiple opportunities for deployment across multiple industry segments, including petrochemical applications, with the possibility of eliminating the initial extraction of ethylene from naphtha cracking. The companies will conduct a joint feasibility study to identify commercial deployment opportunities of the technology at Braskem's ethylene consuming plants.

The agreement provides for license options for the world-scale deployment of Siluria's technology by Braskem, as well as opportunities for Braskem to be a purchaser of the ethylene produced by future Siluria plants. The collaboration also foresees rights for Siluria ownership participation in Braskem future commercial projects using the OCM technology. The Brazilian company will also host a Siluria OCM Demonstration plant, which is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2014, at one of its US units.

Siluria's OCM technology provides a novel process for the conversion of methane from natural gas to ethylene and liquid fuels. The flexibility of the technology provides multiple high-value opportunities for the deployment across multiple industry segments. Siluria plans to deploy its OCM technology in a range of commercial settings, including existing ethylene producing plants, at ethylene consuming sites, upstream gas monetisation, natural gas midstream plants, as well as world-scale grass roots deployments. The technology's use of commonly available natural gas as feedstock, compatibility with existing industry operations, as well as its relative simplicity and energy efficiency provide very attractive economics compared to existing ethylene production processes, like ethane and naphtha cracking. Additionally, the company's Ethylene-To-Liquids (ETL) technology packages are designed to provide substantial capital, operating cost and product slate advantages over alternative gas-to-liquids technologies.