Marsh-gas

Virtually anywhere water contacts organic matter in the absence of air is a suitable place for methanoarchaea to thrive—at the bottom of ponds bogs and rice fields for example Marsh gas (swamp gas) IS mostly methane Methanoarchaea live inside termites and grass eating animals One source quotes 20 L/day as the methane output of a large cow... 

Methane also is commonly produced by the decomposition of organic matter by a variety of bacterial processes, and the gas is used as a fuel in sewage plants (see Water, sewage). Methane also is called marsh gas because it is produced during the decay of vegetation in stagnant water. 

Chemical Designations - Synonym Marsh gas Chemical Formula CH ... 

Sumpf-erz, n. bog ore. -gas, n. marsh gas. sumpfig, a. Swampy, marshy, boggy. Sumpf-kalk, m. slaked lime, -luft, /. marsh gas. -moos, n. swamp moss, sphagnum (moss), -nelke, /. piirple avens (Geum rivale). -ol, n. sump oil. -pfianze, /. marsh plant, -porsch, -porst, m. marsh tea (Ledum pa-lusirei. -silge,/. marsh parsley (Peucedanum palustre). 

CH4, marsh gas, fire damp. It is the first hydrocarbon of the paraffin series. 

Methane, also referred to as marsh gas, is a gas composed of carbon and hydrogen with a chemical formula of CH4. It is the first member of the paraffin or alkane series of hydrocarbons. It is lighter than air, colorless, odorless, tasteless and is flammable. It occurs in natural gas and as a by-product of petroleum refining. In atmospheric burning no smoke production normally occurs. In air methane bums with a pale, faintly luminous flame. With excess air carbon dioxide and water vapor is formed during combustion, with an air deficiency carbon monoxide and water is formed. It forms an explosive mixture with air over a moderate range. Its primary uses are as a fuel and raw feedstock for petrochemical products. 

Anaerobic digestion, like pyrolysis, occurs in the absence of air. But, the decomposition is caused by bacterial action rather than high temperatures. This process takes place in most biological materials, but it is accelerated by warm, wet and airless conditions. It occurs naturally in decaying vegetation in ponds, producing the type of marsh gas that can catch fire. 

A combination of atoms such as this is called a molecule. A molecule made up of hydrogen and carbon is called a hydrocarbon. This particular compound is a molecule of the asphyxiating gas methane, sometimes called marsh gas or coal miners Black Damp. Instead of writing the compound with the valency bonds showing, it is more commonly written CH4. 

It is interesting to note that stratified combustible gas mixtures can exist in tunnel-like conditions. The condition in a coal mine tunnel is an excellent example. The marsh gas (methane) is lighter than air and accumulates at the ceiling. Thus a stratified air-methane mixture exists. Experiments have shown that under the conditions described the flame propagation rate is very much faster than the stoichiometric laminar flame speed. In laboratory experiments simulating the mine-like conditions the actual rates were found to be affected by the laboratory simulated tunnel length and depth. In effect, the expansion of the reaction products of these type laboratory experiments drives the flame front developed. The overall effect is similar in context to the soap bubble type flame experiments discussed in Section C5c. In the soap bubble flame experiment measurements, the ambient condition is about 300 K and the stoichiometric flame temperature of the flame products for most hydrocarbon fuels... 

It has been shown that if hydrogen is passed over pure carbon heated to 1150° C., direct chemical union takes place, methane or marsh gas being formed —... 

Methane is a flammable gas, often called marsh gas or natural gas. Methane, as natural gas, is widely used as an energy sonrce for domestic and industrial purposes. 

Beaotione.—1. Decomposed into carbon and marsh-gas by passmg through a red-hot tube... 

Methylic hydride, or marsh gas, is produced during putre> faction, and by the distillatiou of potaesio acetate with excess of potiUKuo hydrate,... 

The gas of the mud-Tolcano at Bulgonak in the Crimea is nearlj pure marsh-gas. 

The alcohols form one of the most important of the Emilies of oi ganio compounds. The simplest member of this family is methylic alcohol, which is derived fiem marsh-gas by the sub stitution of one atom of hydroxyl for one of hydrogen. 

Wbett passed through a red-hot tube, alcohol is decomposed into marsh-gas, hydrogen, and carbonic oxide —... 

Tbeae reactions are tbe analogues, in the dyad series, of the one by which marsh>gas is obtained from ao o acid. The hydrides of the dyad radicals so obtained are isomeric with those of the corresponding monad radicals,... 

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