Tag Archives: oxygen

Methane Plus Oxygen Yields Carbon Dioxide and Water

Carbon dioxide, Climate, , ,

Visualized here is  a chemical reaction, the burning of a molecule of methane.   These  are made with an organic chemistry model kit,  wherein the elements carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen are represented by the black spheres,  red spheres,  and white spheres, respectively.

DSC00729 One methane molecule,  CH4, which is an atom of carbon bonded with four atoms on hydrogen, reacts with two molecules of oxygen (O2),  each of which consists of two atoms of oxygen bonded together,DSC00728

rearranges the atoms to yield one molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), and two molecules of water (H2O).

People (scientists of different types, e.g. chemists, physicists, climatologists) study interactions of these molecules in the atmosphere.   Methane, carbon dioxide, and water are all greenhouse gases in order of decreasing strength per molecule.

 

Carbon Dioxide from Methane

Climate, Education, Environment, Global, , , , ,

DSC00729A model of a methane molecule and two oxygen molecules, the reactants  when we burn methane (natural gas) in air.  The methane molecules is made of one carbon atom (black)  and four hydrogen atoms (white).   Methane is  a  hydrocarbo.  It is also a fossil fuel.  The element oxygen occurs in the atmosphere as two oxygen atoms (red) combined into a molecule.   When the methane burns, the above reactants become rearranged into the products below, with the release of energy.

DSC00728 These are the products formed, carbon dioxide and water,  when methane burns in oxygen.  The leftmost molecule is carbon dioxide, made up of one carbon atom (black)  and two oxygen atoms (red).  Each of the two water molecules is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas which is put into the atmosphere when methane, or any fossil fuel is burned.  This is  the source of our global warming.