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Methane (CH₄)

Methane is a colorless, odorless and highly flammable gas that is slightly soluble in water. It combines one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms to form the simplest hydrocarbon of the paraffin series with the molecular formula CH4.

Effects on Humans

Methane is highly volatile when mixed with air and can cause explosions at 15 ppbv or less. The gas burns with a hot flame and may cause burns. Methane may also displace oxygen to cause asphyxiation in cramped or inadequately ventilated areas.

Applications

Also known as 'marsh gas,' methane is produced by the decomposition of vegetation by anaerobic bacteria and is the principal constituent of natural gas distributed along gas pipelines from natural gas fields.  Methane is also created industrially by the carbonization of  bituminous coal and is released by waste-treatment plants that use anaerobic bacteria to break down sludge. Methane is cheap, plentiful, and easy to handle, making it a popular fuel for commercial and domestic uses. In the chemical industry, steam is applied to methane to produce hydrogen; methane is also used in the production of methanol, chloroform, ascetic acid and other chemicals.

CH₄ and Climate Change

Methane is about 20 times more effective greenhouse warming gas than carbon dioxide, or CO2. Ice core records suggest that historical methane levels fluctuated between 300 and 700 ppbv before the industrial revolution. Since then, levels have been increasing roughly 1% per year to their current level of 1700 ppbv, and methane is now a significant greenhouse gas (after CO2 and H2O).

Anthropogenic sources are thought to contribute about half of global methane emission (~2000 Tg/year). Abundance is 5% higher in the Northern Hemisphere.

Methane is primarily removed from the atmosphere by reaction with the hydroxyl (OH) radical, which is responsible for large scale removal of many atmospheric contaminants.

Detection

Our databases include more than 50 spectral absorption bands of methane from 0 to 6185 cm^-1. The following figure shows a linear radiative transfer through a laboratory cell containing methane at room temperature and pressure, spectral region 1290-1320 cm^-1.

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