in either case operating at the elevated temperature and achieving a pressure in the range stated above the ch 4 undergoes disassociation it forms free carbon because at this juncture there is very little available for combining with the carbon it additionally forms free or elemental hydrogen the discharge from the chamber 38 goes into a co separator 44 the co is separated and removed the elemental hydrogen is then transferred to a hydrogen storage facility 46 the methane injected into the chamber 38 is broken down ultimately forming the disassociated free hydrogen the disassociation step forms carbon it may collect on the interior surfaces but it generally will also flow out of the equipment in the form of free carbon or carbon black this can be recovered and is a valuable byproduct of methane processing generally a separate market for carbon black is available and the carbon black can be collected and transferred for use elsewhere the hydrogen storage device 46 is connected with an output compressor 48 which compresses the hydrogen and delivers it downstream into an evacuated furnace 50 this is for feeding the furnace 50 along with crushed lignite for conversion under vacuum and at elevated temperature this process is set forth in greater detail in application ser no 06 542 276 filed on oct 17 1983 by the present inventor coming back now to focus on the present invention it will be observed that it operates with a feedstock of methane or ch 4 assume that the methane feed is substantially free of h 2 s and nh 4 to the degree that co 2 is mixed with it it is substantially insignificant in altering the conversion to the extent that the.