The complete combustion of octane can be used as a model
for the burning of gasoline:
2 C8H18 + 25 O2 : 16 CO2 + 18 H2O
Assuming that this equation provides a reasonable model
of the actual combustion process, what volume of air at
1.0 atm and 25°C must be taken into an engine to burn
1 gallon of gasoline? (The partial pressure of oxygen in air
is 0.21 atm, and the density of liquid octane is 0.70 g/mL.)0
First of all you must understand octane rating. n-octane is a very poor motor fuel, having an octane rating of 0 (zero)! iso-octane has an octane rating of 100. Gasoline at the pump contains little or no iso-octane. n-octane and iso-octane are only discussed in the very old context of, "our gas is better than their gas" arguments, which blew up with the introduction of tetra-ethyl lead and was pushed by AMOCO because they sold what was called "white gas" which didn't have the "octane boost" of the tetra-ethyl lead. This side of the argument (To use lead or not to use lead, that is the question!) died with the removal of lead from gasoline. If you want to learn about combustion and reactions there are many good textbooks. Combustion is still an important field of study to enter. Two suggestions: 1) use moles when analyzing reactions; 2) don't mix units (gallons, °C, atm., g, ml).
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