Challenges for the utilization of methane as a chemical feedstock

The abundance of methane has led to a strong interest to use methane as a feedstock in the chemical industry. One of the main challenges is the initial activation of the methane molecule. This has resulted in the development of several different approaches to utilize methane, some more developed than others. In this work the current status of the different approaches is discussed and the main issues for industrial utilization described. A special focus of this work is the status of catalyst development.