[shehri]

Hi all,

        I've been striving to find a way of coverting Ethane to Methane but in vain.I know how to convert lower Hydro Carbons to Higher ones by first converting them to Alkyl Halydes.Plz. suggest me how to convert Ethane to Methane?Thanks.

[Alberto_Kravina]

Hi all,

        I've been striving to find a way of coverting Ethane to Methane but in vain.I know how to convert lower Hydro Carbons to Higher ones by first converting them to Alkyl Halydes.Plz. suggest me how to convert Ethane to Methane?Thanks.

Well, I have an idea (maybe there is a simpler method to solve this problem, but however, here's what I suggest...)

Ethane ? Ethene + H₂
Ehtene + O₃ ? CH₂O
CH₂O + LiAlH₄ ? CH₃OH
CH₃OH + HCl ? CH₃Cl + H₂O
CH₃Cl + Mg ? CH₃MgCl
CH₃MgCl + H₂O ? CH₄ + MgOHCl

[movies]

Are you familiar with thermal cracking?  I'm not sure if it works for ethane to methane, but it works for bigger alkanes.

[Dan]

Well, I have an idea (maybe there is a simpler method to solve this problem, but however, here's what I suggest...)

From formaldehyde, you could do a Wolf-Kishner, Mozingo, or Clemmenson reduction. That cuts out a few steps.

[AhmedEzatAlzawalaty]

i think thermal cracking works but on a large scale.

[Custos]

Are you trying to do this for real or is it an intellectual exercise?

You could simply burn the ethane to give CO₂ and water and then reduce the carbon dioxide to methane with hydrogen over a cobalt oxide catalyst. It's a pretty pointless exercise to do in real life, but this way is a two step synthesis - better than the ozonolysis route but not as short as cracking