Jackson
Hazard to Others
Posts: 189
Registered: 22-5-2018
Location: U S of A
Member Is Offline
Mood:  Happy about new glassware
|
|
Methane synthesis
I have been wanting to attempt the Miller-Urey experiment for a while now but what I always get hung up on is getting methane for the experiment. I
have seen people generate alkenes using the dehydration of alcohols using sulfuric acid, but the smallest alcohol I can find literature for is
ethanol. Would it work to generate methane from methanol? I know methane isn't an alkene, but shouldn't the overall process be the same? I know I
could get methane from the gas lines, but as I am doing this at home, I don't have a takeoff point, and I don't know if I could get one installed.
|
|
|
Ubya
International Hazard
Posts: 1247
Registered: 23-11-2017
Location: Rome-Italy
Member Is Offline
Mood: I'm a maddo scientisto!!!
|
|
you could decarboxylate sodium acetate with sodium hydroxide, it's one way to produce methane in a lab
---------------------------------------------------------------------
feel free to correct my grammar, or any mistakes i make
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
XeonTheMGPony
International Hazard
Posts: 1640
Registered: 5-1-2016
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
or make a 5gallon digester and add an empty tire tube to it as a collection bladder, then simply run through sodium hydroxide to scrub most the un
wanted crap out of the gas stream.
FYI I'm envious, I all ways wanted to do this as well.
[Edited on 13-2-2019 by XeonTheMGPony]
|
|
|
Heavy Walter
Hazard to Others
Posts: 127
Registered: 17-12-2015
Location: Argentina
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Are you familiar with the Sabatier reaction?
You need to feed hydrogen and carbon dioxide through a nickel catalyst @ 350° C and you get methane.
|
|
|
Jackson
Hazard to Others
Posts: 189
Registered: 22-5-2018
Location: U S of A
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy about new glassware
|
|
Yeah I have looked at it, and it is probably the best because it can give me a constant stream of methane at a pretty reliable rate. The last time I
read up about it I could have sworn the catalyst was an expensive platinum group meta type catalyst but if it’s just nickel then I guess it’s
something I should probably look more into. Would a metal tube of something like copper be a good reaction tube?
|
|
|
Heavy Walter
Hazard to Others
Posts: 127
Registered: 17-12-2015
Location: Argentina
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Hi,
In the chromatographic world it is employed in "methanizers", used to quantify CO and CO2 with a FID.
Google it.
Beware because the nickel powder is rated as cancerigen. Surely there are alternative catalysts.
|
|
|
Hieron
Harmless
Posts: 1
Registered: 21-2-2019
Member Is Offline
|
|
What would be the best alternative catalyst for nickel powder btw?
|
|
|
clearly_not_atara
International Hazard
Posts: 2787
Registered: 3-11-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Big
|
|
Nickel powder and CO in the same place sounds a bit scary.
I wonder if you could reduce a solution of methyl halide in methanol using aluminum amalgam and get methane. Perhaps even Al/Cu wold work.
|
|
|
Heavy Walter
Hazard to Others
Posts: 127
Registered: 17-12-2015
Location: Argentina
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Jackson
Another option to get methane is the reaction of aluminum carbide with water.
|
|
|
12thealchemist
Hazard to Others
Posts: 181
Registered: 1-1-2014
Location: The Isle of Albion
Member Is Offline
Mood: Rare and Earthy
|
|
If we're considering all possibilities, one could generate methane via protonation of a methyl Grignard or methyllithium, but this would be a terrible
waste of a difficult-to-get reagent
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
