How can you calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of an object?

Answer 1

This can be done precisely under certain conditions, but in practice things aren't so simple. You need to know the exact chemical formula of the thing being burned (this can be difficult if you are burning wood, for instance, which is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds). You also have to assume that the combustion is complete -- in other words that all hydrocarbons are completely converted into carbon dioxide and water, which is not always the case in normal burning situations. The actual reactions that occur while burning something are very complicated in fact, but to a close approximation, you can figure out the amount of CO2 produced in the following way:

First, write the balance equation for the combustion of the hydrocarbon. The reactants are the hydrocarbon itself and oxygen gas (O2). The products are carbon dioxide and water. See the Related Questions to the left for how to do this.

Then use stoichiometry to figure out for a certain amount of hydrocarbon burned how much CO2 you will produce. See the Related Questions links to the left for how to do this also.

See the Related Questions links to the left for detailed instructions on how to do each of these steps! Note that in both of the related questions, example problems have been worked out using the combustion of a hydrocarbon! Most of the work is done for you already! Just see the examples in the linked questions to the left.

Answer 2

You have to know the amount of fuel you have (mass)

You have to know the composition of the fuel, especially the carbon present in it.

You have to know the Atomic Mass of carbon and oxygen.

An example:

Assume you are burning hexane. (C6H14)

The formula for combustion of hexane is 2C6H14 + 19O2 --> 12CO2 + 14H2O

So for 1 mole of hexane (86 g) you get 6 moles of CO2.

From the above 1 mole of hexane gives 6 moles of carbon dioxide

or since a mole of CO2 has a mass of 12+32 = 44 g, 86 g hexane produces 264 g of carbon dioxide (each gram of hexane produces about 3 g of carbon dioxide)

If volume not mass is what you need, a mole of hexane as a liquid weights 86 g and has a density of 0.6548 g/ml, so a mole of hexane has volume of 131.3 ml and a litre of hexane will produce 1964.4 g of CO2

Answer 3

To calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from burning an object, you need to know the carbon content of the object and use the stoichiometry of the combustion reaction. The general equation for the combustion of carbon is C(s) + O2(g) -> CO2(g). By balancing the equation and knowing the amount of carbon in the object, you can calculate the amount of CO2 produced.