The vehicles we drive release over 1.7 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere each year—mostly in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2)—contributing to global climate change. Each gallon of gasoline you burn creates 20 pounds of CO2. That's about 6 to 9 tons of CO2 each year for a typical vehicle. more...
It seems impossible that a gallon of gasoline, which weighs about 6.3 pounds, could produce 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned. However, most of the weight of the CO2 doesn't come from the gasoline itself, but the oxygen in the air.
When gasoline burns, the carbon and hydrogen separate. The hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water (H2O), and carbon combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2).
A carbon atom has a weight of 12, and each oxygen atom has a weight of 16, giving each single molecule of CO2 an atomic weight of 44 (12 from carbon and 32 from oxygen).
Therefore, to calculate the amount of CO2 produced from a gallon of gasoline, the weight of the carbon in the gasoline is multiplied by 44/12 or 3.7.
Since gasoline is about 87% carbon and 13% hydrogen by weight, the carbon in a gallon of gasoline weighs 5.5 pounds (6.3 lbs. x .87).
We can then multiply the weight of the carbon (5.5 pounds) by 3.7, which equals 20 pounds of CO2!
Physical and chemical properties of gasoline: Department of Energy (DOE), Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), Properties of Fuels.
Pollution control devices cannot reduce your car's CO2 emissions. You can only reduce them by
Fueleconomy.gov's Find-a-Car feature provides greenhouse gas emissions estimates for each vehicle. Two types of emissions estimates are provided:
EPA's Transportation and Climate Site
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Global Warming: Frequently Asked Questions (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA])
Highway vehicle CO2 emissions based on EPA's Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990 – 2009, Table 2-15, p. 2-22. April 2011.
Average annual vehicle CO2 emissions based on Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 27. Table 11.9, p. 11-13. 2008.