Why is natural gas used for houses connected to gas mains, propane for unconnected houses, butane for cigarette lighters, etc.? What makes a particular gas suitable for various applications?
Thanks,
Rob
Butane becomes a liquid at a much lower pressure than propane. Natural gas would not be practical stored in a tank because as a gas you would not have enough volume.
Methane cannot be liquefied at room temperature. The only practical way to move it is through pipelines, aside from the narrow circumstances when LNG or ANG make sense. It’s actually kind of a bad fuel, but we’ve got lots of it and a pipeline infrastructure has relatively low operating cost and high reliability.
Ethane primarily gets turned into other chemicals, so we don’t bother burning it.
Propane can be compressed into a liquid at room temperature, which makes it easy to transport. It has a low boiling point, so you can use it as a fuel in winter without having to warm it up first.
Butane doesn’t work so well when it’s cold out, due to its high boiling point, but it can be contained as a liquid (and thus high volumetric energy density) at low pressure (e.g. a lighter in your pocket).