See 33. Dopamine, L-Dopa

CHEMICAL NAME = methane CAS NUMBER = 74-82-8 MOLECULAR FORMULA = CH4 MOLAR MASS = 16.0 g/mol COMPOSITION = C(74.87°/o) H(25.13%) 

Methane has been used as a fossil fuel for thousands of years. The discovery of methane is attributed to the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). Volta, known primarily 

Methane is the principal gas found with coal and oil deposits and is a major fuel and chemical used is the petrochemical industry. Slightly less than 20% of the worlds energy needs are supplied by natural gas. The United States get about 30% of its energy needs from natural gas. Methane can be synthesized industrially through several processes such as the Sabatier method, Fischer Tropsch process, and steam reforming. The Sabatier process, named for Frenchman Paul Sabatier (1854—1941), the 1912 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry from France, involves the reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen with a nickel or ruthenium metal catalyst C02 + 4H2 — CH4 + 2H20. 

Methane is an important starting material for numerous other chemicals. The most important of these are ammonia, methanol, acetylene, synthesis gas, formaldehyde, chlorinated methanes, and chlorofluorocarbons. Methane is used in the petrochemical industry to produce synthesis gas or syn gas, which is then used as a feedstock in other reactions. Synthesis gas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. It is produced through steam-methane reforming by reacting methane with steam at approximately 900°C in the presence of a metal catalyst CH4 + H20 — CO + 3H2. Alternately, methane is partially oxidized and the energy from its partial combustion is used to produce syn gas  

Hydrogen from syn gas reacts with nitrogen to produce ammonia N2 + 3H2 — 2NH3. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen from syn gas can be combined to produce methanol CO + 2H2 — CH3OH. Methanol is primarily used for the production of formaldehyde through 

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