Saudi Aramco Technologies Company, a subsidiary of the world’s largest oil company, and Siluria Technologies, a leader in disruptive process technologies for the petrochemical and energy industries have executed a multi-plant technology licence for the integration of Siluria’s proprietary technology (natural gas to olefins) with Saudi Aramco’s high-olefins cracking process technology.
 
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Siluria Technologies is a pioneer in the commercial production of fuels and chemicals made from abundant natural gas and low value byproducts.

Siluria’s natural gas-to-olefins technology, based on oxidative coupling of methane chemistry, is available for license in stand-alone configurations, as well as integration within a wide range of existing process plants; including steam crackers, propane dehydrogenation units, oil refineries, and methanol plants, said a statement from the US group.

By integrating Siluria’s technology with existing facilities, operators can upgrade their methane-containing by-product streams from fuel to chemical value, improving carbon efficiency and production rates, it added.

Robert Trout, the president and chief executive of Siluria, said: "Converting methane containing off-gases to higher value chemicals adds meaningful economic value, while plant integration can deliver excellent capital efficiencies. We are thrilled to be working with a company like Aramco towards some of the largest and most technologically advanced petrochemical facilities the industry has ever seen."
 
"As we engage more customers around the world, our clients are helping to discover new and exciting ways in which our technologies can be used to improve the economics, operability, and environmental footprint of their existing process plants," noted Trout.

Ahmad Al Khowaiter, the chief technology officer of Saudi Aramco, said: "Maximizing the output of high-value chemicals products from our future crude oil processing projects is one of the key objectives in our downstream technology strategy."

"We see a strong fit with Siluria’s “gas to olefins” technology in certain plant configurations, and look forward to collaborating further with Siluria to realize the value of these processes," he added.-TradeArabia News Service