The production of syngas is the most energy demanding and metal consuming stage in the conversion of gaseous hydrocarbons (GH's) into value-added products. Its complexity restrains many practical applications of chemical processing of GH's, especially for low scale of operation. The paper describes new compact and highly productive generator of syngas and hydrogen based on the combustion of GH's in volumetric permeable matrixes with locked IR radiation that can serve as a solution of this problem. It is shown that such simple devices can provide a highly efficient methane conversion into syngas and thus facilitate the utilization of low-capacity sources of GH's for economically feasible low scale syngas and hydrogen production from various local hydrocarbon sources. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.