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Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dmitrygr on Monday September 27, 2021 @02:02PM (#28673932)

  > 100 gallons of gas convert to a ton of CO2
Gasoline is about 87% carbon and 13% hydrogen by weight. And its density is around 700 kg/m^3. 100 gallons is 378.5 liters, which is 265.0 kg. That is 230.5 kg of carbon. C is 12.011 per atom, O is 15.999, thus that converts to 844.6kg, not a ton. Rounding up by >15% to make numbers more impressive is not nice when we are taking science
Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by epistasis on Monday September 27, 2021 @02:18PM (#28674103)
A gallon of gas converts to 20 pounds of CO2, and there are 2000 pounds in a US ton. My first web search hit, just to make sure my memory was not faulty, was this explanation:

https://climatekids.nasa.gov/review/carbon/gasoline.html

Using imperial units is always unfortunate, but when dealing with the typical unit of gasoline in the US, it's inevitable.

Not sure where you are getting your numbers, perhaps you're using a UK gallon or something?

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dragonwriter on Monday September 27, 2021 @07:22PM (#28677360)
> Using imperial units is always unfortunate, but when dealing with the typical unit of gasoline in the US, it's inevitable.

Well, no, when dealing with the typical unit of gasoline in the US, Imperial units are irrelevant, and US Customary units are inevitable.

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dmitrygr on Monday September 27, 2021 @05:23PM (#28676204)
I gave all my numbers making it trivial to check that I am using the us gallon and. Perhaps a site for kids that you cited isn’t using more than one sig fig?
Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by epistasis on Monday September 27, 2021 @07:20PM (#28677339)
The kids site is far more correct than yours, and consistently uses two significant figures in its calculations. See, for example, the US federally accepted value of 19.59 pounds or 8.887 kg CO2/gallon burned:

https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-ca...

Your error appears to be using a single significant figure for the density of gasoline, at 700. Other sources place it from 711 to 749 kg/m3.

Hopefully you will reconsider my comment being "not nice," since you started with one sig fig and ended with four, and then did not consider the two different meanings of ton. And on top of this all, this ignores all the upstream emissions to generate the gasoline, which is greater than the 15% which you said was "not nice."

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dmitrygr on Monday September 27, 2021 @08:21PM (#28677838)
378.5 * 749/1000 * .87 * (15.999 * 2 + 12.011) / 12.011 = 903.7

still well short of a ton

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by epistasis on Monday September 27, 2021 @08:59PM (#28678084)
You seem to be accepting that I was able to find your error on the single significant figure.

However, I already told you that I was using a US ton, 2000 pounds, 907kg:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1+ton+in+kg

Additionally, you are not including the 3-6 pounds per gallon in upstream emissions for gasoline.

Let's recall that this all started from the phrase "about 100 gallons of gas convert to a ton of CO2" and that when you quotes, you omitted the "about" so that you could try to make your incorrect quibble relevant. So at this point I would like to call this a very "not nice scientifically" departure from anything relevant, but I'm all ears if you were going somewhere interesting with this.

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dragonwriter on Monday September 27, 2021 @07:30PM (#28677426)
> Gasoline is about 87% carbon and 13% hydrogen by weight. And its density is around 700 kg/m^3.

That density seems to be on the low end; different formulations have different densities, and the sources I’ve found give somewhat different ranges, but the ranges given typically seems to be about 750±35 kg/m³.

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by lostlogin on Monday September 27, 2021 @02:28PM (#28674211)
When I search I get a variety of answers, with the bulk being around the same or lower CO2 emissions than your calculation. Why does it the answer vary? Does it change depending on the grade of the fuel?
Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by epistasis on Monday September 27, 2021 @03:54PM (#28675259)
I have not found a single page with estimates as low as dmitrygr’s 18.6 pounds per gallon. The numbers from the top hits ina web search for me:

19.64 - http://www.patagoniaalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/...

20 - https://climatekids.nasa.gov/review/carbon/gasoline.html

20 - https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/contentincludes/co2_inc.htm

19.6 (converted from grams) - https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-ca...

“Just over 19” - https://epicenergyblog.com/2013/05/24/how-many-pounds-of-car...

The next hit isn’t about CO2 from burning Gas, but about the upstream emissions that go into producing gasoline, which it pegs at 3.3 to 6.7 per gallon - https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ask-mr-green/hey-mr-green-...

What sort of estimates are you getting?

Re:Europe’s energy crisis is about to go global as gas price... by dragonwriter on Monday September 27, 2021 @07:34PM (#28677466)
> Why does it the answer vary? Does it change depending on the grade of the fuel?

Yes, “gasoline” is a family of related fuels of different densities and compositions, and it will also vary based on assumptions about how it is burned. Incomplete combustion will result in more “dirty” pollution and less CO2.