Direct conversion of methane to fuels and chemicals

Direct selective conversion of methane to C-2-hydrocarbons, methanol or aromatics represents a formidable challenge to catalysis. This has become more and more evident over the last decades of intensive research and no breakthrough technology has so far been developed. A large number of approaches based on catalysis and reaction engineering has been proposed and the present contribution focuses on some of these approaches. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.