ethane vs hydrocarbon

ethane and hydrocarbon both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ethane	Yes	No	No	No
hydrocarbon	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, hydrocarbon is a hypernym of ethane; that is, hydrocarbon is a word with a broader meaning than ethane:

Other hypernyms of ethane include alkane, alkane series, methane series, paraffin, paraffin series.

ethane (noun)	hydrocarbon (noun)
a colorless odorless alkane gas used as fuel	an organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen