What types of fossil fuels are odorless and tasteless?

Answer 1

Pure methane - the main component of natural gas - is relatively odorless and tasteless. For this reason, a minute amount of odorant is usually is added to the otherwise colorless and almost odorless gas used by consumers. The odor has been compared to the smell of rotten eggs, due to the added butyl mercaptan. Sometimes a related compound, thiophane may be used in the mixture. These additives are what people associate with the "smell of natural gas". Ethane and ethylene are also relatively odorless, but by the time you get up to 4-carbon fossil fuels like butane, they start having a noticeable odor to them. Because what we smell plays a part in the "taste" we assign to a substance it is no surprise that an odorless gas like methane would also be tasteless while something like gasoline or kerosene would most definitely have both an odor and taste.

Answer 2

Natural gas is an odorless and tasteless fossil fuel. However, a distinct odor is added to natural gas for safety reasons so that leaks can be detected.