This study demonstrates the technical feasibility of simultaneously converting ethanol and methane into liquid hydrocarbons at mild reaction conditions (400 degrees C and 1 atm) over silver and/or zinc modified zeolite catalysts. After GC-MS analysis, it is worth noting that aromatics are the major compounds contained in the liquid product collected from the run when 1%Ag/ZSM-5, particularly after H-2 pretreatment, is charged. Compared to the performance exhibited from the run with pure HZSM-5 support engaged, Ag addition into the HZSM-5 framework favors aromatics formation, which might be closely associated with better Ag dispersion and more abundance of strong surface acidic sites where aromatization might take place while Zn loading exerts a detrimental effect on the production of aromatics but promotes the ether generation possibly through dehydration reaction. Referred to that from its N-2 counterpart, the increased aromatics formation of the collected liquid product when methane is present indicates that methane existence might facilitate ethanol aromatization. Moreover, combined with the increased carbon number in the formed aromatics from CH4 run when H-2 run is referred and zero liquid formation from CH4-alone test as well as more prominent endothermic feature of methane run and more importantly the notably increased C-13 signals in C-13 NMR spectra of the liquid product collected during ethanol conversion under (CH4)-C-13 environment, all the observations suggest that methane might be activated nonoxidadvely and converted into higher hydrocarbons, preferentially into aromatics if suitable catalyst is charged under the assistance of co-existing oxygenated hydrocarbon. The reported synergetic effect could potentially lead to the more economic utilization of abundant natural gas and cellulosic ethanol. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.