What Temperature Does Propane Boil
Why is propane stored in household tanks but natural gas is not?
Category: Chemical science Published: May 2, 2013
Public Domain Image, source: Christopher S. Baird.
In order to become a useful amount of gaseous fuel into a reasonably-sized tank, you have to liquify it. Some fuels are easier to liquify than others. Co-ordinate to the textbook Organic Chemistry by Joseph M. Hornback, propane has a humid signal of -44° F (-42° C) at atmospheric pressure, only methane (natural gas), has a boiling betoken of -260° F (-162° C) at atmospheric pressure. This means that methyl hydride has to be cooled to a much lower temperature than propane in order to be turned to a liquid that can be stored in a tank. Propane molecules consist of three carbon atoms bonded in a concatenation with viii hydrogen atoms bonded to these carbon atoms. In dissimilarity, a marsh gas molecule is just one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms. Methane molecules have a loftier degree of symmetry. As a upshot, they do not have a permanent electric dipole. Bonding between permanent dipoles is the dominant bonding mechanism between molecules as they liquify for many substances such every bit water. Methane's symmetry, and therefore lack of a permanent electric dipole, ways that its molecules tin merely bond through a much weaker effect known as the London dispersion force or the van der Waals force. In this consequence, molecules induce temporary dipoles in each other, and these dipoles so bond. Considering this bonding mechanism is and so weak, the methane molecules have to be cooled to a low temperature until they are still plenty to bail and class a liquid. In contrast, propane does not crave as low a temperature to liquify.
But household propane is not usually kept in a liquid land past a low temperature. Instead, high pressure level is used. In order to keep propane a liquid at room temperature (lxx° F or 21° C), it has to be held in a tank at a pressure of about 850 kPa. This can be accomplished with a strong metal tank. In contrast, to go along methane a liquid at room temperature requires a tank that can maintain a pressure of about 32,000 kPa. Household metallic tanks cannot withstand this pressure. In short, methane is not stored in household tanks because the symmetry of its molecule makes it hard to liquify. You could in principle store methane in a tank in the gas state, merely marsh gas has such low density in the gas state that you could non store a usable corporeality. Instead, natural gas is processed and stored at refinery plants and then pumped to households in the gas land through pipes. The properties of different basic fuels are summarized beneath, showing nicely the trend in room temperature liquid pressures. Note that the pressures are approximate.
| Fuel | Boiling Point (°C) | Vapor Pressure at 21°C (kPa) |
|---|---|---|
| Methane CH4 | -162 | 32000 |
| Ethane C2Hvi | -89 | 3800 |
| Propane C3Hviii | -42 | 850 |
| Butane C4H10 | 0 | 230 |
| Pentane CfiveH12 | 36 | 60 |
| Hexane C6H14 | 69 | 17 |
| Heptane C7Hxvi | 98 | 5 |
| Octane C8H18 | 126 | 1 |
What Temperature Does Propane Boil,
Source: https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/05/02/why-is-propane-stored-in-household-tanks-but-natural-gas-is-not/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20textbook%20Organic,%C2%B0%20C)%20at%20atmospheric%20pressure.
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