How do I make methane and ethane easily?

[JStriker]

Is there a way to make methane easily without the use of chemicals like aluminum carbide? Is there a way to separate methane from natural gas?

 

Is it possible to produce ethane from acetic acid?

[Elite Engineer]

1.) For ethanol ---> ethane:

 

-dehydrate the ethanol in sulfuric acid, which will give you ethylene. Then further reduce it by hydrogenation via Platinum catalyst. OR.. just react ethanol with

 

aluminum oxide (under heat) to get ethane, OR react ethanol with sodium hydride to get ethane.

 

2.) For acetic acid ----> ethane:

 

reduce acetic acid to ethanol using lithium aluminum hydride, and then reducing ethanol the same way from the first step.

 

as far as methane, natural gas is mostly methane gas..about 75%. The gases could be separated but it would far too complex and costly to set up..and not really worth your time.

[davidivad]

this may be a crude and unacceptable answer for what you are doing, but if you are just looking for a burnable gas try cooking wood.

you put it in a container with a spout or such and heat it. the result will run an engine albeit not very much power.

[John Cuthber]

There's a much more crude answer to the question "How do I make methane".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence

but I guess that's more biology than chemistry.

 

But I think it's difficult to answer the question sensibly unless you know the context.

Is this question about laboratory preparation or industrial?

What resources do you have?

[JStriker]

I am not using the gases as fuel or anything, I just like collecting gases. I am talking about laboratory preparation without using any rare or toxic chemicals.

[John Cuthber]

Something like this?

http://mattson.creighton.edu/CH4/

[JStriker]

Yes. Something like that link. That helped me a lot. Thanks