How much carbon dioxide is produced by burning gasoline ...

Harvard wrote:
According to the US Energy Information Administration Website:

"About 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced from burning a gallon of gasoline that does not contain ethanol. About 22.38 pounds of CO2 are produced from burning a gallon of diesel fuel."

High school chemistry was not my strong suit so how does (about) 6 pounds of fuel produce some 20 pounds of emissions?

How many pounds of Oxygen is needed to burn that gallon of fuel?

Sorry, I should have Googled first. C Chemistry 101

Just look at the formula CO2, each atom of Carbon from the fuel (weight 12) reacts with 2 atoms of Oxygen each weighing 16 each for a total of 44. So you go from 12 to 44 more than 3X the weight. Plus each atom of hydrogen in the fuel (weight 1 each) combines with oxygen to form water H2O so that's an 8 fold increase in weight. Just as an educated guess I'd say there are at least 2 hydrogens for each carbon in gasoline.

Of course in the RV World it is Carbon Monoxide CO that is the dangerous gas that is produced from improper burning of Propane Fuel...

I mix-up the two gases CO and CO2 up myself when referring to the RV Propane Heaters especially when talking about the CO detector Alarms... Almost everyone calls this a CO2 detector...

Roy Ken

It's like horses. 1 gallon of feed creates 20 gallons of poop

lc0338 wrote:
It's like horses. 1 gallon of feed creates 20 gallons of poop

One of the things I get in trouble for on assorted forums is political posts.. NO, this is not one of them, This is a political JOKE.

You see I grew up on a dairy farm, where the formula you gave (one pound of feed = 20 pounds of Bovine Poop) also applies.

So (here is the political joke part) I grew up shoveling Political promises by the ton.

Harvard wrote:
According to the US Energy Information Administration Website:

"About 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced from burning a gallon of gasoline that does not contain ethanol. About 22.38 pounds of CO2 are produced from burning a gallon of diesel fuel."

High school chemistry was not my strong suit so how does (about) 6 pounds of fuel produce some 20 pounds of emissions?

diesel has a higher carbon content, hence more CO2 per gallon, but also higher energy content per gallon. pretty much balances out once mpg is taken into account.

wa8yxm wrote:

lc0338 wrote:
It's like horses. 1 gallon of feed creates 20 gallons of poop

One of the things I get in trouble for on assorted forums is political posts.. NO, this is not one of them, This is a political JOKE.

You see I grew up on a dairy farm, where the formula you gave (one pound of feed = 20 pounds of Bovine Poop) also applies.

So (here is the political joke part) I grew up shoveling Political promises by the ton.

Here's another interesting item that seems to routinely be ignored.
We are always hearing that it is bad that we have all these cows that are continually belching and farting and therefore emitting methane that contributes to global warming.

But probably the same people lamenting this situation seem to think that what happened before there were any people was a perfect situation. And they long for the days when 30 to 60 million bison roamed over the entirety of North America.

But did these bison not belt and fart for millenia?

agesilaus wrote:
Just look at the formula CO2, each atom of Carbon from the fuel (weight 12) reacts with 2 atoms of Oxygen each weighing 16 each for a total of 44. So you go from 12 to 44 more than 3X the weight. Plus each atom of hydrogen in the fuel (weight 1 each) combines with oxygen to form water H2O so that's an 8 fold increase in weight. Just as an educated guess I'd say there are at least 2 hydrogens for each carbon in gasoline.

This is correct. (Says the person with a M.S. in Chemistry.)

"High school chemistry was not my strong suit so how does (about) 6 pounds of fuel produce some 20 pounds of emissions?"

Well, may be moving on to college, taking/passing a few basic chemistry classes could answer this for you but since, you, clearly avoided it, chances are these questions will go unanswered for you.


Chum lee




Senior Member