A gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 6 pounds.
So how do they reckon it gives off a more than 3X higher volume of waste than the initial product?
So how do they reckon it gives off a more than 3X higher volume of waste than the initial product?
One molecule of CO2 weighs 3.66 times as much as its constituent carbon atom (12+2*16)/12.
If gasoline is pure octane (C8H18) it is 84% carbon, or about 5.3 pounds of carbon per gallon of gas which will produce 19.4 pounds per gallon. Play around with the mixture of hydrocarbon atoms and you'll get slightly different weights of CO2 produced.
It is basic chemistry.
Gasoline is a mix of hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons are some variant of CxHy. Methane is the simplist at CH4 (one carbon and four Hydrogen atoms forming a molecule of Methane). Methane is not in gasoline, because at room temperature and pressure, it is a gas(vapor).
Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, hydrogen an atomic weight of 1. When burned with oxygen in the air, the carbon atoms forms CO2, a molecule with one carbon and two oxygen atoms. The hydrogen atoms combine with oxygen to form water vapor H2O. CO2 has an molecular weight of 44. 12 for the carbon, 32 for the two oxygen atoms(16 each).
One atom of Carbon has a weight of 12, one molecule of CO2 has a weight of 44. So, a hydrocarbon molecule with several carbons and some hydrogen atoms produces Carbon dioxide at a ration of 12/44, with the hydrogens having much less effect because they only have an atomic wight of 1 each.
That is how you produce about 3X the weight of Carbon dioxide for each weight of Hydrocarbon burned.
It is the extra weight of the oxygen that boosts the weight of the carbon dioxide.
The volume is much, much more, because CO2 is a gas at ordinary temperatures, while the hydrocarbons in gasoline are a liqued.