TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The fuel cell reactor is a solid oxide fuel cell reactor. The hydrocarbon treating unit is a pre-reformer operating in an optimized condition to convert higher hydrocarbons having more than two carbon atoms, with steam to hydrogen and carbon oxides. In the reactor: hydrogen is generated as a by-product in the chemical reaction, which limits the conversion to the equilibrium; the fuel cell walls are solid oxide fuel cell walls of any type operating at elevated temperatures, where the catalytic chemical reaction is carried out on the anode side of the cell, resulting in oxygen ions being transferred from the cathode side (the air side) and reacted with hydrogen on the anode side (fuel side); and oxygen ions transferred via the electrolyte from the cathode side are reacted in situ with hydrogen on the anode side, thus producing water and removing hydrogen from the equilibrium reaction.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: In the equilibrium reaction, n moles of methane are converted to n moles of aromatic products of formula (CnH2n-6) (I), preferably to monocyclic aromatics and n+3 moles of hydrogen gas, where hydrogen is removed to be used for generating electricity in a proton exchange membrane type fuel cell reactor or reacted in situ with oxygen ions transferred from the cathode department to produce steam in a solid oxide fuel cell reactor.n = 6-9.A conversion catalyst is coated on the anode surface, and/or loaded in the anode compartment. The cleaned gas is further treated to remove or convert any hydrocarbon species except methane in order to produce a methane-rich feed gas for the solid oxide fuel cell reactor. The unconverted feed gas in the fuel cell reactor is separated and recycled back to the reactor. A fraction of the gas from the fuel cell reactor effluent, which contains hydrogen, is used to clean and treat the raw hydrocarbon feed gas. The chemical reaction is a heterogeneous catalytic gas phase reaction. EXAMPLE - Natural gas was desulfurized in a natural gas hydrodesulfurization unit and fed to a pre-reforming unit operating at a relatively low temperature, along with enough steam to merely reform higher hydrocarbons. The pre-reformed natural gas was devoid of any higher hydrocarbons and almost devoid of carbon monoxide. The effluent from the pre-reformer was cooled in a carbon dioxide/water separation unit to condense out the water. The content of carbon dioxide in the dry gas was also removed in this unit. Part of the hydrogen from the pre-reformed gas was separated in a membrane unit and recycled back to the natural gas hydrodesulfurization unit. Dry methane-rich gas from the membrane unit mixed with solid oxide fuel cell reactor recycle gas was heated up to the reaction temperature and fed to the solid oxide fuel cell reactor, and hot air was blown through the cathode channels of the solid oxide fuel cell reactor. The product gas from the anode channels was cooled down using the reactor feed gas and then led to the phase separation unit, where organic, aqueous and gaseous phases were separated. A small fraction of the gaseous phase was purged to prevent accumulation of inert gases in the synthesis loop, and the rest of the gas was cleaned up and recycled back to the solid oxide fuel cell reactor. The organic phase was sent to the distillation unit for further purification of the final product. The aqueous phase was sent to the waste water treatment unit. Natural gas was supplied to the plant at a pressure of 30 barg. Thus methane conversion was obtained.