alt.energy.renewable

In nicksanspam@ece.villanova.edu writes:

>=?iso-8859-1?Q?Roland_M=F6sl?= wrote:

>>"patrick mitchel" schrieb im Newsbeitrag:

>>> Hell; I've been to 3 sites and they have different #'s as to the pounds
>>> of carbon dioxide produced in the burning of a gallon of gasoline. And the
>>> method as to how they arrived at the figure? Thanks Pat
>>
>>1 Litre makes 2,365 kg CO2

>Wow. Perhaps you mean 2.365. The USEPA says a gallon makes 19.4 pounds.

here's something I put together a few years ago:

Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 01:37:07 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: Creating 25 lbs of CO2

Ah, for high school chem and physics.

Ok, first we have to define gasoline. let's keep it simple and just use
the single octane molecule ( C8H18) and not worry about the rest.

And let's also figure on complete combustion with all the carbon burning
into CO2 and not into other things.

Next step is to figure how many molecules of octane we have. Well, a
gallon of gasoline weighs about 6.2 pounds [a].

next is to figure how much of that is carbon versus hydrogen
(keeping it simple, and using atomic weights of 1 for hydrogen
and 12 for carbon)
8 carbons * 12 = 96
18 hydrog * 01 = 18
total molecular weight of octane: 114
percent that is carbon: 96/114 = 0.84 = 84%.
and multiplying that by 6.2 pounds -> 5.22 pounds of carbon/gallon

next step:
5.22 pounds of carbon -> ??? pounds of CO2 ?
again, let's keep this simple and use 16 for oxygen's atomic weight.

So... in a molecule of CO2, the total moleculer weight is:
12 (from carbon) plus 32 (from two oxygen atoms)
totalling: 48.

Since the atom of carbon was 12, that means that a molecule of CO2,
being 48, is four times as great.
HENCE, one gallon of gasoline, which has 5.22 pounds of carbon,
will give you 20.88 pounds of CO2

[a] http://www.sheboygan.lib.wi.us/pages/reffaq3.html (among many others)



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