TEHRAN – World’s largest OCM (oxidative coupling of methane) pilot unit for ethylene production will be operational in Iran in 20 days, the head of Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) said here on Wednesday.

OCM offers direct conversion of natural gas to ethylene which is currently done by turning naphtha into ethylene through indirect methods, Sassan Sadraii Nuri continued, adding the unit at RIPI is to produce five kilograms of ethylene daily before plans for industrial scale production become feasible.

Another advantage to OCM is that ‘the valuable naphtha’ used for gasoline production is no longer needed to be converted into ethylene and it can be ‘freed’ to meet the country’s increasing gasoline demand.

The unit was constructed in a joint venture with Japanese JOGMEC at the cost of Rls.3b ($330,000) and RIPI also monitors the current worldwide activities on OCM related subjects for further improvement, he noted.

Ethylene is a valuable commodity in world market sold at $400 per ton. ML/MA END MNA