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David Zheng SNC 2DW
At room temperature, Methane is a colourless and odourless gas. Methane is a compound found in natural gas. The common odour in natural gas comes from an added odourant, which helps people smell leaks. Methane burns easily in air, and it is not easily soluble in water. Its flame in complete combustion is blue, and when there is not enough oxygen it is an orange colour. Methane has a boiling point of −161.5 °C, and a melting point of −182.456 °C.
Methane gas is a molecular compound, also known as carbon tetrahydride. It is also a hydrocarbon fuel. With one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms per molecule, its formula is CH4.
Carbon has 4 valence electrons, so it needs 4 more to get a full valence shell, becoming stable. To do this, it bonds with 4 hydrogen atoms, each with a single bond, to become stable. Each hydrogen atom now shares 2 electrons, they are also stable.
Methane Gas has a variety of uses, most commonly as fuel through combustion. It is used to power ovens, furnaces, water heaters and even rocket fuel. Methane is also used to produce hydrogen gas on a large scale. This is done by using nickel as a catalyst and steam, which produces carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas.
In our homes, Methane gas comes in the form of natural gas, to power our furnaces, water heaters, and stoves. It's used as fuel by being ignited through combustion, and the flame releases heat to power our appliances.
When liquid methane is combined with liquid oxygen, it outputs energy enough to propel a rocket. An example of this being used is the SpaceX Raptor.
Methane was discovered and identified by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta in a lake marsh between Italy and Switzerland. He was interested in the substance after reading Benjamin Franklin's paper on flammable air, which led him to collect gas rising from the marsh. In 1778, he found a way to isolate pure Methane Gas, and proved it to be flammable by lighting it with a spark.
Methane can be emitted from a marsh, just how Volta discovered it
Methane is extracted from natural gas fields, which comes from a geological deposit. It can be thermogenic, which means that organic matter was broken up at a high temperature and deep below the earth's surface. Another source of methane comes from ruminants, which cannot be harvested. This includes livestock like cattle and pigs, who belch methane. This is responsible for 22% of methane emissions into the atmosphere in the US.
Natural gas fields occur underground, and can be harvested using machinery.
Methane is produced from rice fields, termites, and even organisms at the bottom of lakes. They turn carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas into methane gas and water. This applies to biological methane production which cannot be harvested, and not the industrial kind from underground.
This reaction is also reversible, used when producing hydrogen gas on a large scale.
If hydrogen gas needs to be produced in large quantities, methane gas can be combined with water to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas.
Another way to produce hydrogen gas is to have the same number of methane molecules as water molecules, and it produces carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas.
Then, the carbon monoxide produced can be used to make more hydrogen gas.
Methane is turned into energy in homes through combustion. With complete combustion, methane reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water.
This is an exothermic reaction. Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and is harmful in large amounts to ecosystems.
Complete combustion burns with a blue flame
Incomplete combustion happens when there is not enough oxygen to burn the fuel (methane). The products of this reaction are carbon monoxide, water, carbon monoxide and solid carbon/soot.
Soot, a solid form of carbon, indicates that incomplete combustion is happening. This means that carbon monoxide is being released, which is toxic for humans.
High levels of methane in the environment reduces oxygen taken into the body. Oxygen loss, or hypoxia causes symptoms such as:
Pressurized liquid methane coming in contact with skin can cause frostbite
If incomplete combustion happens in a home, carbon monoxide is released.
Carbon monoxide is poisonous to humans, colourless and odourless, so there must be detectors in homes. Common signs of poisoning include:
Can also cause death in very high exposure
If methane is leaked into the environment, it's a greenhouse gas, like CO2. Methane contributes to global warming because of how effectively it absorbs heat. In fact, using methane for combustion as energy releases CO2, another common greenhouse gas. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases acid in lakes. This will cause species to die, reducing biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems.