Blau gas () is an artificial

illuminating gas The history of gaseous fuel, important for lighting, heating, and cooking purposes throughout most of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, began with the development of analytical chemistry, analytical and pneumatic chemistry i ...

that is similar to

propane Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...

. It was named after its inventor, Hermann Blau of

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

, Germany. Rarely used or produced today, it was manufactured by decomposing

mineral oil Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from usually edible vegetable oils. The name 'mineral oil' by itself is imprecise, ...

s in

retort In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a sphere, spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heat ...

s by heat, and compressing the resulting

naphtha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...

until it liquefied. It was transported in liquid condition, and, like LPG, when released returns to a gaseous state. The density relative to air is 0.963, giving an average molecular weight of 27.9. One litre at 0 °C and contains 1.246 grams, of which 1.042 is carbon and 0.204 is hydrogen, giving an average of 1.94 carbon atoms and 4.54 hydrogen atoms per molecule. Blau gas contains about 50%

olefins In organic chemistry, an alkene, or olefin, is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. The double bond may be internal or at the terminal position. Terminal alkenes are also known as α-olefins. The International Union of P ...

(alkenes), 37%

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

and other

alkane In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in whi ...

s, 6%

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

, while the rest is air. The

heat of combustion The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The ''calorific value'' is the total energy relea ...

is 12,318

kcal KCAL may refer to: * KCAL (AM), a radio station (1410 AM) licensed to Redlands, California, United States * KCAL-FM, a radio station (96.7 FM) licensed to Redlands, California, United States *KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent tel ...

, or 51.5 MJ, per kg. Blau gas has a rather water-like color. It was historically stored in steel cylinders for shipment, and, around the turn of the century, had the advantage of possessing the highest

specific energy Specific energy or massic energy is energy per unit mass. It is also sometimes called gravimetric energy density, which is not to be confused with energy density, which is defined as energy per unit volume. It is used to quantify, for example, st ...

of all artificially produced gases. Chemically, Blau gas is similar to

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

, but, unlike coal gas, is free from

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

. Furthermore, Blau gas is difficult to bring to explosion. It was obtained from thermal decomposition of hydrocarbons (especially distillates from lignite and oil shale, but also other mineral oils). In contrast to the procedure for oil gas, which was produced by the

Pintsch Pintsch (, ) is a village in the commune of Kiischpelt, in northern Luxembourg. , the village has a population of 335. It was the site of intense fighting between German and American troops in the January 1945, and one of the last sites of con ...

company from 1909, was also shipped in steel cylinders and had distillation temperatures of 900 to 1000 degrees Celsius to gasify the oil as completely as possible, the Blaugas process used lower temperatures of 550 °C to 600 °C and greater precompression. Easily condensable (gasoline-like) hydrocarbons were separated in the process (initially by additional cooling) before final compression in the liquefied gas cylinders. Blau gas was burned for lighting and heating; a less-pure form known as Pintsch gas fuelled illuminated buoys and beacons (for navigation),

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American English, American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and International Union of Railways, UIC), also called a tra ...

lights and stoves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Blau gas is most famous, however, as the buoyancy compensating fuel for the

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'' () was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic flight, transatlantic passenger flight service. The ship was named after th ...

. Because its density is approximately the same as that of

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

, burning Blau gas and thereby replacing its volume with air does not lighten the gas cells of an

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

, thereby eliminating the need to adjust buoyancy or ballast in-flight."Blue Gas & Hydrogen". ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', 15 October 1928

References

External links

Use of Blau gas on airship LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin
{{Fuel gas Fuel gas Lighting Aviation fuels Synthetic fuels Synthetic fuel technologies Airship technology

See also

References

External links