How can 1 liter gasoline produce 2 kilogram CO2?

Question

Yesterday I was in a museum (Museon, Den Haag) where was said that 1 liter gasoline produces more then 2 kilogram CO2. Please explain this.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Gasoline is about 750 g/L. So 1 L of gas weighs about 750 grams, and most of that mass is carbon atoms. When you burn gasoline, it mostly makes CO2 and water vapour. CO2 is heavier than carbon atoms because it has two oxygen atoms (that it got from the fresh air required for the combustion reaction.) So yeah, the math checks out. 1L of gasoline actually produces more like 2.3 kg of CO2.