For more than a century, the chemical industry has relied on the same essential process to make one of its most important building blocks: ethylene. This simple hydrocarbon underpins plastics, fibers, and countless chemicals, and it is usually produced by steam cracking—a hot, energy-hungry process that splits naphtha or ethane into ethylene. Into this established world, a San Francisco–based startup called Siluria Technologies promised a disruptive alternative: a way to convert natural gas (methane) directly into ethylene and then into liquid fuels at lower temperatures and with fewer emissions.
Founded around 2007, Siluria quickly captured attention not just for its ambitious science but also for its high-profile backers, major industry partners, and the tantalizing promise of a “cleaner, cheaper route from methane to chemicals.” The journey of Siluria—from bold idea to demonstration plant, licensing agreements, acquisition, and eventual absorption into the portfolio of major engineering players—offers lessons in innovation, risk, and the hard realities of scaling chemical technologies.
The Science: OCM and ETL Explained
At the heart of Siluria’s innovation lay two proprietary technologies:
- Oxidative Coupling of Methane (OCM)
- Instead of cracking hydrocarbons, OCM couples two methane molecules into ethylene using a special catalyst.
- Unlike the conventional approach, which is highly endothermic and energy intensive, OCM reactions are exothermic, producing heat that can be integrated into the process.
- Siluria’s teams reportedly screened more than 70,000 catalysts with high-throughput tools—far more than previous generations of researchers attempted—until they found viable formulations that worked at lower temperatures and pressures.
- Ethylene-to-Liquids (ETL)
- Once methane was transformed into ethylene, Siluria could feed that into its ETL process, which converted ethylene into liquid hydrocarbons such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
- This provided not only a chemicals pathway but also an entry into fuels markets, positioning Siluria as a potential disruptor across multiple value chains.
Together, OCM and ETL hinted at a revolutionary vision: turning abundant shale gas into plastics and fuels without the emissions and energy demands of traditional refining.
Funding and Backers
Disruption requires capital, and Siluria managed to attract plenty.
- Series B in 2011: $20 million led by the Wellcome Trust, alongside Kleiner Perkins, ARCH Venture Partners, Alloy Ventures, and Altitude Life Science Ventures.
- Total raised: By the mid-2010s, estimates placed Siluria’s funding at $100–176 million, making it one of the most heavily financed startups in the clean-tech chemical space.
The investor roster reflected a belief that Siluria’s technology could be game-changing, especially in an era of cheap U.S. natural gas thanks to shale.
Leadership and Vision
Siluria’s leadership helped bridge Silicon Valley innovation and Houston’s chemical industry realities.
- Edward Dineen took the reins as CEO in 2013, bringing decades of petrochemical experience.
- Under Dineen, Siluria doubled down on commercialization, pursuing partnerships and demonstration projects.
- After Dineen left in 2016 to head TPC Group, Siluria continued under a series of executives focused on bringing its demo plant data to marketable deals.
This mix of tech startup culture and chemical engineering discipline gave Siluria credibility with both venture capitalists and industry giants.
Demonstration Plant: La Porte, Texas
The most visible symbol of Siluria’s progress was its La Porte demonstration plant, built on the premises of Braskem America in Texas.
- Grand opening: April 1, 2015.
- Capacity: While smaller than full commercial plants, the unit was significant as the world’s first large-scale OCM demo facility.
- Engineering partners: Designed and constructed with Zeton, a specialist in pilot and demo-scale plants.
For Siluria, La Porte provided crucial real-world data. In 2016, the company declared the demo’s first year a success, citing stable operation, commercial readiness, and strong performance metrics.
Partnerships: Linde and Saudi Aramco
Siluria knew that to scale, it needed industry heavyweights:
- Linde: The German engineering giant became a partner for ethylene technology, helping position OCM as a licensable alternative to steam cracking.
- Saudi Aramco Technologies Company: In June 2018, Siluria signed a multi-plant licensing agreement to integrate OCM with Aramco’s high-olefins cracking processes. This deal marked Siluria’s most significant validation, hinting at global potential if economics and reliability held.
Acquisition by McDermott
In August 2019, Siluria’s independent chapter closed with its acquisition by McDermott International, a global engineering and construction firm.
- Rationale: McDermott sought to expand its technology portfolio, and Siluria’s OCM/ETL fit neatly alongside other process technologies.
- Assets included: The La Porte demo plant and Siluria’s intellectual property.
At the time, the move was seen as a way to ensure Siluria’s innovations would not remain trapped in startup limbo but instead reach the marketplace through McDermott’s global licensing and engineering channels.
Transition to Lummus Technology
Barely a year later, McDermott restructured and sold its Lummus Technology division to a joint venture led by TCG and Rhône Capital (2020). Siluria’s technology portfolio moved with Lummus.
From then on, Lummus Technology became the custodian of Siluria’s OCM and ETL processes, rebranding and offering them as part of its wider portfolio of petrochemical and clean-energy technologies.
Legal Wrinkles and Legacy
In the years following the acquisition, legal disputes emerged around the La Porte demo unit, with cases between Siluria entities and Lummus reaching U.S. courts. By 2025, appellate rulings favored Lummus, clarifying ownership and contractual responsibilities.
These legal sagas underline how IP and pilot assets remain highly contested in the process-technology world, especially when promising breakthroughs are at stake.
Technology Impact and Challenges
Why it mattered
- Energy efficiency: OCM’s exothermic nature potentially reduced fuel consumption.
- Emissions: A more direct pathway could lower CO₂ compared to steam cracking.
- Feedstock shift: Methane, rather than naphtha/ethane, broadens the feedstock base, aligning with natural gas–rich regions.
Why it struggled
- Selectivity vs. yield: Achieving high ethylene selectivity while suppressing unwanted byproducts is notoriously difficult.
- Scale-up risk: Moving from demo to world-scale plants is capital intensive and uncertain.
- Market inertia: With billions invested in existing crackers, petrochemical majors are cautious about unproven alternatives.
The Broader Context: Gas-to-X Race
Siluria was part of a larger wave of gas monetization innovations in the 2010s:
- Gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects (e.g., Shell’s Pearl GTL in Qatar).
- Methanol-to-olefins (MTO) routes in China.
- Crude-to-chemicals (C2C) mega-refineries in the Middle East and Asia.
In this competitive environment, Siluria stood out for offering a simpler, potentially cheaper route to ethylene—but one that still had to prove itself against entrenched giants.
Today and Tomorrow
As of 2025, Siluria Technologies no longer exists as a standalone startup, but its innovations live on under Lummus Technology. Lummus markets the OCM process—sometimes branded under names like Gemini OCM—as part of its licensing portfolio.
Industry watchers continue to ask: Will OCM finally reach commercial-scale deployment, or will it remain a promising technology that never quite broke through?
What is clear is that Siluria shifted the conversation. By demonstrating that OCM could work at pilot and demo scale, it renewed interest in methane valorization, challenged assumptions about cracking, and left a lasting legacy in the evolution of chemical process technology.
Conclusion
The story of Siluria Technologies is one of bold innovation, heavy investment, industry validation, and eventual absorption into the mainstream. While it did not build world-scale OCM plants itself, Siluria proved the concept and opened doors for others to carry the torch.
For energy transition analysts, chemical engineers, and investors alike, Siluria offers both inspiration and caution. Breakthrough chemistry is possible—but scaling it to billions of pounds per year is a marathon, not a sprint.
And for readers who enjoy exploring the crossroads of technology, energy, and industry disruption, keep following more deep-dive stories like this at Digi Fanzine technology.
