2) Cooling to 40 °C in methane atmosphere The acetylene conversion and the ethane selectivity of the different catalysts after the activation phase between 30 °C and 90 °C are shown in Figure . The acetylene conversion of the catalysts (Figure , left) with 1 wt%, 5 wt% and 10 wt% iron loading increases with increasing temperature, while the activity of the catalyst with 5 wt% and 10 wt% iron loading shows the highest activity. The catalyst with 5 wt% iron loading shows the highes activity at lower temperatures. The activity of the catalyst with 10 wt% iron loading exceeds its activity only at 90 °C. When looking at the selectivity to ethane (Figure , right), values above 100 % were obtained. This is due to the fact that the ethane selectivity was calculated based on the acetylene conversion. Since ethane can also be formed by hydrogenation of ethylene, ethane selectivities above 100 % are possible, but not desirable. The selectivity to ethane shows a similar behavior for the catalyst with 5 wt% and 10 wt% iron loading, with a minimum of selectivity to ethane at around 60 °C and higher selectivity to ethane at higher and lower temperatures. The catalyst with 5 wt% iron loading shows the highest overall selectivity to ethane. It is noticeable, that the selectivity of the catalyst with 1 wt% iron loading decreases with increasing temperature.