Siluria, after five years of research, seems to have finally stumbled across a cheap method of converting natural gas into gasoline. Because natural gas is much more abundant and less in demand than crude oil, it’s only one fifth of the price — about $20 for the natural gas equivalent of a $100 barrel of crude. After Siluria’s conversion process, it may be possible to halve the price of gasoline and other oil-derived products (commodity chemicals, plastics). The best bit: Due to Siluria’s rather unique research methods, it has no idea why or how its process works — only that it appears to work rather well.

Siluria is in the business of making catalysts — compounds that reduce the energy required to start another chemical reaction. In this case, Siluria has created a catalyst that allows methane (the main constituent of natural gas) and oxygen to react at low temperatures, creating ethylene and water. Ethylene is the world’s most-used commodity chemical, which in turn is used to create a huge number of chemicals and plastics. Polyethylene, humanity’s favorite plastic, consumes more than 50% of the world’s production of ethylene.

Historically, ethylene is produced from either naphtha (from refined crude oil) or ethane. In both cases, it is a very expensive process, both in terms of raw ingredients and energy (heat) required. Siluria’s process, however, uses special catalyst pellets that allow natural gas (very cheap) to combine with oxygen (cheap), at low temperatures (cheap), to produce cheap ethylene. You could also argue that this process is a lot cleaner than using crude oil or ethane, too, though it’s hard to say with certainty without knowing what the catalyst is. According to Technology Review, it then only takes one more “simple” step to turn ethylene into gasoline: Voilà, cheap fuel.

This process, of course — the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) — has been sought after for decades, but many petrochemical companies gave up back in the ’80s, claiming the chemistry was too difficult. Siluria, however, seems to have stumbled across a catalyst that makes the process possible. We say “stumbled across” because Siluria’s research process basically consists of a rapid, automated system that throws new catalysts at the wall to see what sticks. What used to take petrochemical companies a year, Siluria can do in a couple of days. “We’ve made and screened over 50,000 catalysts at last count,” Erik Scher told Technology Review. “And I haven’t been counting in a while.”

Siluria’s catalysts build upon the work of Angela Belcher, who created a genetically engineered virus scaffold that grabs onto nearby molecules in a very specific order and pattern. Ultimately, that’s all a catalyst is: A specific substance, with the right shape, that somehow aids a chemical reaction. (Much like the enzymes in your stomach have exactly the right shape for grabbing and splitting longer molecules in two, aiding digestion.) By varying the virus scaffold, and by altering the molecules that flow over it, a different catalyst is formed. Siluria automated this process, it seems, so that new catalysts can be developed very quickly. The caveat is that, because the catalysts aren’t built to spec by human scientists, they don’t actually know why they work — just that they do.

Siluria has been teasing us with this breakthrough for a while, and the petrochemical industry has remained understandably skeptical. Now, however, with the help of Brazilian petrochemical giant Braskem, the Silicon Valley startup is building a commercial-scale plant in Texas. After years of posturing, we will finally find out if Siluria can cheaply produce ethylene and gasoline from natural gas. If it can, we’d be looking at a breakthrough of epic proportions. The world has an almost unlimited supply of natural gas, while proven reserves of crude oil are wavering. If Siluria’s catalyst pans out, our lackadaisical adoption of solar and nuclear power may get another lengthy reprieve… whether that’s a good thing or not, I leave to you to discuss.