Carbon fossil fuels are utilized to power our vehicles, make oil, and even t-shirts. The EPA has determined that a car transforms a gallon of octane (C8H18) to 33.7 kWh (kilowatt*hours, an expression of energy) in order to power a vehicle.
1. Provide the balanced equation for the complete combustion of octane.
2. If a truck is able to drive 360 miles on a tank of octane (22 gallons) how much energy is needed to move the vehicle one mile? What mass of CO2 is produced per gallon of octane? (the density of octane is 0.703 g/mL)
3. According to the L.A times there are 253 million cars on American roads. Assuming that each car is driven 50 miles each day, five days a week determine the mass and volume of the CO2 produced and mass of octane needed to power them for a year (assuming 20 miles per gallon)?