Calcium carbide

Calcium carbide (CaC₂) is an inorganic compound that reacts with water to release acetylene gas. It is used to produce acetylene and in steelmaking.

Acetylene: A flammable hydrocarbon gas with formula C₂H₂, used in welding and as a chemical feedstock. Calcium carbide reacts with water to generate this gas.
Acetylene welding: A welding and cutting process that burns acetylene with oxygen to produce a hot flame. Acetylene made from calcium carbide can supply the fuel gas.
Friedrich Wöhler: A German chemist whose work helped establish modern organic chemistry. He prepared calcium carbide in the nineteenth century while studying carbon compounds.
Steam cracking: A petrochemical process that breaks hydrocarbons into smaller molecules using high-temperature steam. It is a major modern route to acetylene and contrasts with carbide hydrolysis.
Hydrolysis: A chemical reaction in which a compound is split by reacting with water. Water breaks down calcium carbide, forming acetylene and calcium hydroxide.
Steelmaking: The industrial production of steel from iron and other materials. Calcium carbide removes sulfur and assists deoxidation in some steelmaking processes.
Thomas Leopold Willson: A Canadian inventor and engineer associated with electric-furnace production of calcium carbide. His industrial process made calcium carbide manufacture commercially practical.
Natural gas: A naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons, chiefly methane. Natural-gas-based processes can produce acetylene without calcium carbide.
Calcium hydroxide: An inorganic compound, Ca(OH)₂, also called slaked lime. It forms alongside acetylene when calcium carbide reacts with water.
Desulfurization: The removal of sulfur from a material or process stream. In molten iron, calcium carbide can bind sulfur into calcium sulfide.

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Aluminium carbideCompared with: It also generates a hydrocarbon on hydrolysis, but the gas is acetylene rather than methane.