U.S. scientists said Thursday they have devised a potentially easier, cheaper and cleaner way to turn natural gas into usable fuels and chemicals — a discovery that could lead to natural gas products displacing oil products in the future.
The process would be less complex than conventional methods to turn natural gas into liquid products, and it uses much lower heat and inexpensive materials to get the job done, they said.
Almost anything — fuel or chemical — that can be made from petroleum also can be made from natural gas, but it is not done today because the cost of converting natural gas into those materials is much higher, the researchers said.