Natural gas consumption has steadily increased during the last two decades. Up until now, natural gas could only be used where the corresponding industrial infrastructure was available or where the distance to the consumer could be bridged by means of pipelines. In the meantime, gas transportation over great distances from the source of supply to the most important consumption areas can be overcome by liquefaction of natural gas (LNG = liquefied natural gas) and transportation in specially built ships as is done for example in Japan, which supplies itself almost entirely by importing LNG. In the future, natural gas could possibly be transported by first converting it into methanol - via synthesis gas - necessitating, of course, additional expenditure.