Emission from vehicles

Air and fuel mixture burns in the combustion chamber to produce power. The fuel is mainly made up largely of compounds of hydrogen and carbon called hydrocarbons (HC). If the combustion is complete then all the fuel burns to give carbon dioxide and water. But unfortunately there is some incomplete combustion and fuel burns to give carbon dioxide (CO₂), water (H₂O), hydrocarbon (HC), oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) etc. These constituents go into the atmosphere and results in increased air pollution. A large number of new vehicles are added to the road daily. With increased vehicles air pollution is increasing which is giving rise to global warming. We cannot reduce this pollution to zero level but taking some precautions we can reduce the polluting constituents of these gases.

Example: The combustion equations for petrol or gasoline are

• 2HC + 3O = H₂O + CO₂ (complete combustion)

• HC + O = H₂O + CO₂ + HC + CO (incomplete combustion)