Ruthenium dispersed on silica is able to chemisorb CH4 at temperatures significantly lower than EUROPT-1 (see the previous articles). At the temperatures used (greater than or equal to 80 degrees C), H-2 desorption parallels CH4 chemisorption but no C2H6 is observed. During the following temperature programmed desorption under flowing argon, CH4 is removed through a wide range of temperature (from room temperature to 300 degrees C) with a first contribution peaking at less than 100 degrees C, Very small amounts of CH4 are desorbed after an adsorption carried out at T greater than or equal to 180 degrees C, due to strong dehydrogenation of the adspecies. Subsequent temperature programmed surface reaction of the remaining adspecies with hydrogen displays upto four CH4 peaks at well defined temperatures (ranging from approximate to 60 to approximate to 340 degrees C), accompanied by a negligible formation of ethane. No C-gamma was formed, The total amount of adsorbed CH4 and the average H/C ratio of the corresponding adspecies can be derived from these experiments. In a separate set of experiments, CH4 is switched to H-2 at the end of the exposure step, the temperature being fixed. An immediate formation of alkanes ranging from C-1 to C-6 is then evidenced. A sizeable fraction of the chemisorbed layer can so be homologated to higher alkanes. The influences of the various operating factors are reported. In particular a neat maximum of the C-2+ production versus temperature (at 160 degrees C) is evidenced and is clearly due to the adverse hydrogenolysis reactions, efficiently catalyzed by Ru. All the results can be interpreted in complete similarity with the Pt case.