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13/10/2007 12:53 PM
 
GregB
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How is Carbon calculated?  (Australia)

Hi There!  Finally an EV forum for down-under - well done!

OK.. I have a question, that's been puzzling me for quite some time..

How is carbon calculated?  (and in deed what do the figures actually mean?)

For instance.. On the main site, there's a calculator - 60 litres per week, at a cost of $1.20, comes out to be about 190 kg's of carbon..

Surely this does not mean that out of 60 litres of fuel, I'm producing 190 x 1 kg blocks of solid carbon.

So what is the calculation actually saying?  Does anyone know?

I'd appreciate anyone being able to explain it, in lay-terms.

Thanks and regards

GregB
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13/10/2007 12:56 PM
 
GregB
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Oh, just in case..  I did read the blurb that says this includes carbon used in the production, etc.  .But I still find it hard to believe it's solid kilograms of carbon..

Cheers

GregB
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13/10/2007 11:26 PM
 
evaustraliaadmin
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Well the way they say it is that burning 1Liter of Petrol produces the equivalent of 2.6 kg’s of CO2, the 3.18 is calculated as an average based on the refining and transportation efficiency. I think the 2.6kg is fairly literal, if you think about it 1 Liter of Petrol is around 1kg, when the petrol if burnt that has to go somewhere as mass doesn’t just disappear. Add to that the fact that when the petrol burns it combines with 2 oxygen atoms from the air so you now have almost 3 times the original mass. I’m no chemist but that’s how I understand it.
So literally yes if you compressed it down you would have a block of somewhere between 2.6 and 3.18kg of CO2 for every litter of fuel you burnt.
 
BTW, I shouldn’t have said Carbon in the text on the front page, it should have been CO2, I think it was just me having trouble visualising a gas as weighing that much. I’ve reworded it slightly.
 
And welcome to the forum, that was a really good question. It took me a while to come to terms with how much we produce, when I worked out that I’ve been driving to and from work for 20 years and during that time I’ve spewed out over 175536kg of CO2 just to get enough money to buy a bigger car and create even more.
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26/10/2007 12:10 AM
 
BjBlaster
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I'd like to have a rant.... about this whole carbon neutral thing. I mean people pay an offset to have their car's as carbon neutral, and they get this lovely little sticker to put on their cars saying it's carbon neutral... but in fact it doesn't matter how much money you pay some organisation like carbonneutral.com.au your car is still pumping out CO2.

I drive a car that runs on straight veg oil and is genuinely carbon neutral because not only does it run on a waste product, but the CO2 is produces is what the plant (before it was crushed into oil) absorbed when it was a plant.

I think it is a big crock of carbon... can someone tell me otherwise?

Cheers

Bj

My projects are here: http://www.bjblaster.com
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26/10/2007 9:38 AM
 
evaustraliaadmin
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I totaly agree, It drives me nuts when I'm sitting behind a car staring at that stupid sticker all the way to work.

I hadn't thought of the veg oil along that line but your right. Makes me feel a little less quilty about fireing up the old wood BBQ now :)
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