Ethane

Ethane (US: ETH-ayn, UK: EE-thayn) is a naturally occurring organic chemical compound with the chemical formula C2H6. At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Natural gas consists of 1–6% ethane by volume, second only to methane. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is isolated on an industrial scale from natural gas and as a petrochemical by-product of petroleum refining. Its chief use is as feedstock for ethylene production. The ethane molecule adopts an staggered conformation, in which the methyl groups are rotated so that the hydrogen atoms are interleaved, and there is an energy barrier to twisting the methyl groups relative to each other. The ethyl group is formally, although rarely in practice, derived from ethane.