The field of OCM has been extensively studied globally since the first publication of 1982 by Keller and Bhasin (1), of Union Carbide. There is no official count of the total number of publications/patents but a reasonable estimate would be 2,000+ and a large majority, 95+ % are publications. Revenues generated would be well in excess of minus $500 million, if not over a billion. In other words, with all these large expenditures of money worldwide, no commercially viable process is in sight. However, recently there is a renewed interest in OCM; thanks to the availability of large amounts of natural gas and Shale gas in the US and other places. Among the announced efforts, there are large projects in USA, China in various Research Institutes/Universities and in Europe, particularly Germany. Therefore, the field of OCM has many Lives, at least four, in that many decades. The author has been engaged in OCM from the start and in nearly all of these Lives and has contributed to the publications and patents. This presentation will cover some of the untold stories behind OCM covering the period from the late 1960s to 2012, with emphasis on the lighter side of chemistry and engineering.1. GE. Keller and M. M. Bhasin, J. Catalysis, 73, 9 (1982).

Untold stories behind OCM (oxidative coupling of methane)

245th National Meeting (2013)

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