Abstract: Implementations of the disclosed subject matter provide a process for the aromatization of a methane-containing gas stream that includes contacting the methane-containing gas stream in a reaction zone of an aromatization reactor comprising an aromatization catalyst and a zirconium hydrogen acceptor under methane-containing gas aromatization conditions to produce a product stream comprising aromatics and hydrogen, wherein at least a portion of the produced hydrogen is bound by the zirconium hydrogen acceptor in the reaction zone and removed from the product and the reaction zone as zirconium hydride, and wherein the weight ratio of zirconium hydrogen acceptor to the aromatization catalyst is at least 1:1.