The fresh and activated samples were characterized using the ex situ techniques N2 adsorption, x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray fluorescence (XRF), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Temperature-programmed reduction and oxidation (TPRO) was conducted using the fresh catalysts. Advanced in situ near-ambient-pressure XPS (NAP-XPS) experiments at the synchrotron were carried out using the activated samples. Following the test protocol for kinetic analysis (Fig. ), three feed compositions were applied for each of the considered reactions in these experiments: (i) dry, (ii) wet, and (iii) alkane-rich. We note that the slow catalyst formation processes under the in situ conditions used in NAP-XPS, which often differ from the real reaction conditions in a fixed-bed reactor, is avoided by the use of samples which were previously subjected to a rapid activation procedure. The detailed description of characterization experiments is provided in the Supporting Information and more general guidelines to be followed in the characterization of catalysts are discussed in the handbook, which is also provided in the Supporting Information.