To measure carbon emission or more specifically carbon-di-oxide emissions from any fuel we need to know a few properties of that particular fuel.
These include weight of the fuel, % of carbon content in the fuel and the amount of oxygen needed to burn that fuel.
Let us take the example of Petrol. One liter of petrol weighs between 710 g to 775 g
depending on octane and atmospheric temperature. For calculation purpose let’s assume its weight 740 g (half way between the two).
The percentage of carbon per liter will depend on the refining. Usually it is between 84% - 87%. For our calculation let’s assume it to be 85%, which means 629 g of carbon per liter of petrol.
If we look at the periodic table, Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, while oxygen has an atomic weight of 16. Carbon-di-oxide has a molecular weight of 44 (1*12 + 2*16). Which means CO2 is 3.67 times as heavy as the original weight of petrol.
So, if we multiply the amount of carbon in petrol with 3.67 it will give us the weight of CO2 produced by burning it (629*3.67= 2308g) or 2.31 Kg.
Here are some of the other fuels and their CO2 emissions:
Diesel:
1 liter of diesel weighs 835 g. Diesel consists for 86.2% of carbon, or 720 g per liter diesel. So by above calculation it comes to 2642 g of CO2 per liter diesel.
LPG:
1 liter of LPG weighs 550 g. LPG consists for 82.5% of carbon, or 454 g of carbon per liter of LPG which comes to 1666 g per liter.
CNG:
Different types of natural gas are available and their carbon weight is between 614 to 721 g. so depending on the type of gas it will produce between 2253 g to 2646 g of CO2 per kg.
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