Why is Gasoline Composition Changing?
5.1 Why pick on cars and gasoline? Cars emit several pollutants as combustion products out the tailpipe, (tailpipe emissions), and as losses due to evaporation (evaporative emissions, refuelling emissions). The volatile organic carbon (VOC) emissions from these sources, along with nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the tailpipe, will react in the presence of ultraviolet light (wavelengths of less than 430nm) to form ground-level (tropospheric) ozone, which is one of the major components of photochemical smog [36]. Smog has been a major pollution problem ever since coal-fired power stations were developed in urban areas, but their emissions are being cleaned up. Now it’s the turn of the automobile. Cars currently use gasoline that is derived from fossil fuels, thus when gasoline is burned to completion, it produces additional CO2 that is added to the atmospheric burden. The effect of the additional CO2 on the global environment is not known, but the quantity of man-made emissions of f
