the present invention the detailed apparatus of the microwave plasma activation can be found in the u s pat no 5 015 349 in this example methane was passed through a flow reactor made of quartz having an outside diameter of 12 mm with a flow rate of 60 ml min and at a total pressure of 20 torr a beenaker resonance cavity was used to activate methane a microwave generator having 60 watts power delivered by the generator was used the hydrated todorokite catalyst was used as a powder and placed downstream of the plasma zone about one mm outside the plasma and spread on the bottom of the quartz tube reactor products were collected in a cold trap and then directly injected into a gas chromatograph through a gas sampling valve products were identified by using known standards and comparison to measured retention times gas chromatography method were used to check the identification of some products the observed conversion of methane of the catalyst was 98 5 the product distribution included 9 9 ethylene 17 8 ethane 9 9 acetylene 19 6 propane 22 6 c4 hydrocarbons and 18 6 c5 hydrocarbons and polymer deposit the dehydrated todorokite catalyst was tested with the same procedures except the methane flow rate was 50 ml min and the microwave power was 40 watts the observed conversion of methane for the catalyst was 97 8 the product distribution included 20 ethylene 42 ethane 25 acetylene 0 2 propane 1 c4 hydrocarbons and 10 c5 hydrocarbons no polymer deposit was observed with this catalyst as illustrated above and according to u s pat no 5 015 349 and.