When scientists use a special cobalt sponge-like material to turn gases into fuel under lab conditions, most of the resulting gas is plain, straight-chain hydrocarbons, and the biggest part of that is methane — the same gas in your kitchen stove.

The oily stuff made by a special cobalt catalyst in a chemical process isn't ready to use as gas or diesel yet—it needs to be cleaned up or tweaked first.

Scientists used a special kind of cobalt-based sponge-like material to turn gas into liquid fuels like those in gasoline, and it made mostly three types of hydrocarbons: straight-chain molecules, ring-shaped ones, and benzene-like ones.

Scientists found that a special kind of cobalt-based powder can help turn gas into liquid fuel on its own, or it can be mixed with other catalysts to make them work better.