I couldn’t find information beyond: “Burning fossil fuels produces CO²” Apparently Fuels produces CO² because fuels produce CO²
In: Chemistry
Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, which are molecules made up entirely of hydrogen and carbon. There are a bunch of different types depending on the number of atoms and the shape of the molecule (methane, ethane, propane, butane, etc.). Gasoline, natural gas, jet fuel, etc. are all just mixtures of different types of hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons are useful as fuels because they have energy stored in the forms of their molecular bonds, and it’s pretty easy for us to get that energy out by combusting them. All you need to do is combine them with oxygen and give them a little bit of energy. The hydrocarbons will react with the oxygen and put out a bunch of energy, which you can use to do work like run a steam boiler or push the pistons in an engine.
The thing is, when you have a chemical reaction, all the atoms you have on one side have to come out the other. They might move around between different molecules, but unless it’s a nuclear reaction you always start and end with the same number and types of atoms. So when you take all the hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen on one side of the equation and rearrange them on the other side, you end up with water and carbon dioxide. That’s just the most stable and efficient form those atoms can take once all the chemical energy from the hydrocarbon’s bonds are used up.
Here, for example, is what happens when you burn methane, the simplest hydrocarbon:
>CH4 + 2 O2 → 2 H2O + CO2
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