Carbon Dioxide and Fuels Data Bank

ATOMIC WEIGHTS OF CARBON AND OXYGEN

The atomic weight of carbon is 12 and oxygen 16.

As carbon dioxide has two oxygen molecules:

The total weight of carbon dioxide is  12+16+16 =44

The amount of carbon in carbon dioxide is then 12/44

Example: if your car emits one ton (1000kg) of carbon dioxide, this is equivalent to 1000 X 12/44 = 272.2 kg of carbon.

FUELS AND CARBON DIOXIDE

1 litre petrol weighs 0.75 g. Burning one litre of Petrol releases 2.36 kg of CO. This sounds unreasonable when one litre of petrol weighs around 0.75 kg, but the majority (over 70%) of the CO2 weight is made up of the oxygen which is consumed from the air and does not originate from the petrol.

TREES AND CARBON DIOXIDE

In the tropics and sub tropics, trees absorb around 22kg of carbon dioxide per year.

One hectare of forest can support 300 mature trees.