Ethane

Ethane is a natural chemical compound with the chemical formula C₂H₆. At normal temperature and air pressure, ethane is a colorless gas with no smell. We get ethane from natural gas and from making other products from oil.

People mainly use ethane to make ethylene. The ethyl group comes from ethane, but this is not done very often. Ethane is different from other compounds like ethene, ethyne, or methane.

History

Ethane was first made in 1834 by Michael Faraday. He used a special process called electrolysis on a solution of potassium acetate, but he thought the gas was methane. Later, from 1847 to 1849, Hermann Kolbe and Edward Frankland made ethane in different ways but thought they had found something else.

It wasn’t until 1864 that Carl Schorlemmer proved that the gas was really ethane. That same year, Edmund Ronalds found ethane in oil from Pennsylvanian fields.

Properties

At normal temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. It freezes at very cold temperatures and melts at even colder temperatures. Ethane does not mix well with water.

Ethane can be found as a tiny part of the air we breathe and has also been spotted in the air around other planets and moons, like Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Scientists believe ethane might have helped form seas on Titan’s surface a long time ago. It is also found in some comets and on the surface of Pluto.

Chemistry

Ethane can react with certain gases, like chlorine and bromine. This reaction makes new substances and gives off heat.

When ethane burns, it releases energy and makes carbon dioxide and water. If there isn’t enough oxygen, it can make other gases. At very high temperatures, ethane can change into ethylene, which is used to make many everyday products.

Production

After methane, ethane is the second most common part of natural gas. The amount of ethane in natural gas changes from place to place. In the past, ethane was often burned as fuel. Now, ethane is important for making chemicals and is separated from natural gas in many places. It can also be taken from petroleum gas.

Ethane is best separated from methane by cooling it to very cold temperatures. One common way to do this uses a special machine called a turboexpander. In this process, gas is cooled by letting it expand through a turbine. Then, distillation can separate ethane from propane and other heavier gases.

Usage

Ethane is mostly used to make a chemical called ethylene. This happens through a process called steam cracking. Ethane works well for this because it makes mostly ethylene, unlike other fuels that make many different chemicals.

Scientists have also looked at using ethane to make other important chemicals. For example, it could be used to make vinyl chloride, but this has been hard to do. There is a small plant in Germany testing this idea. Another plant in Saudi Arabia uses ethane to make acetic acid because ethane is cheap there.

Ethane can also be used to keep things very cold in special refrigeration systems.

In the laboratory

In labs, liquid ethane is sometimes used to freeze water samples very quickly. This fast freezing stops the water from forming crystals that might damage the samples and make it hard to see details clearly.

Health and safety

Ethane is a very flammable gas. If it mixes with air in the right amounts, it can explode.

Ethane does not cause cancer.