Question

On a road trip of 105 miles your car has a gas consumption of 33 miles per gallon. Assuming that the gasoline you burn is 100% octane, how many kg of carbon dioxide do you release into the atmosphere when you make that drive? The density of octane is 703 kg/m³ and one US gallon is 3.79 liters.

Answer 1

For 105 miles drive, total gas consumption will be = 105/33 gallon = 105*3.79/33 liters = 12.059 liters = 12.059 x 10-3 m3

Therefore, the mass of gasoline which you have burned i.e. mass of octane = 12.059 x 10-3 x 703 = 8.477 Kg

Balanced equation for octane is:

2 C8H18 + 25 O2 = 16 CO2 + 18 H2O
Reaction type: combustion

This equation indicates that from 1 mole octane produces 8 mole CO2. Therefore, 114.23 g octane produces 8 x 44 = 352 g CO2. Therefore, the carbon dioxide releases into the atmosphere due to your drive