Methane reserves are abundant on Earth and there are substantial economic and environmental benefits for converting methane to complex molecules instead of burning it as fuel. From the environmental perspective, using methane as fuel is not ideal because of the undesirable release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In economics terms, products of methane conversion are more valuable than inert methane because they can be used in a variety of downstream chemical manufacturing processes. These considerations have driven extensive efforts to develop methane conversion reactions .