The objectives of the project are to discover and evaluate novel catalytic systems for the conversion of methane or by-product light hydrocarbon gases either indirectly (through intermediate light gases rich in C{sub 2}'s) or directly to liquid hydrocarbon fuels, and to evaluate, from an engineering perspective, different conceptualized schemes. The approach is to carry out catalyst testing on several specific classes of potential catalysts for the conversion of methane selectively to C{sub 2} products. The behavior of alkaline earth/metal oxide/halide catalysts containing strontium was found to be different from the behavior of catalysts containing barium. Two approaches were pursued to avoid the heterogeneous/homogeneous mechanism in order to achieve higher C{sub 2} selectivity/methane conversion combinations. One approach was to eliminate or minimize the typical gas phase combustion chemistry and make more of the reaction occur on the surface of the catalyst by using silver. Another approach was to change the gas phase chemistry to depart from the typical combustion reaction network by using vapor-phase catalysts. The layered perovskite K{sub 2}La{sub 2}Ti{sub 3}O{sub 10} was further studied. Modifications of process and catalyst variables for LaCaMnCoO{sub 6} catalysts resulted in catalysts with superior performance. Results obtained with a literature catalyst Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}/Pr{sub …