What chemicals are found in car fumes?

Answer 1

1)HC - Hydro carbon or unburned gasoline. This is what you smell. Raw gas. It comes out the tailpipe just like it went in the fill pipe at the gas station.

2) CO - Carbon Monoxide or partially burned gasoline molecules. The BAD stuff. The combustion process of the gas is for some reason interrupted or there is an insufficient oxygen supply to complete combustion.

3) O2 - An oxide of two oxygen atoms linked. Combustion is when HC and oxygen combine to produce heat. O2 would be the remainder of oxygen that was not consumed (combined) with the HC.

4) CO2 - Carbon dioxide. The result of fosill fuel combustion. The 'green-house' gas.

Plants use it for conversion to energy and oxygen (lucky us). But the production of CO2 is far above what nature can use. The rest goes up into the upper atmosphere and traps the reflected heat from the sun. Global warming.

The above four would account for 99%+ of your exhaust.

(FYI) If humans quit polluting complelely today, it would take the earth another 1000 years to recover from the damage already done.