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Re: moisture in exhaust

To: "Bowen, Patrick A. RP2" <jak0pab@jak10.med.navy.mil>,
Subject: Re: moisture in exhaust
From: "James Carpenter" <jc_carpenter@softhome.net>
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 22:15:32 -0000
>Kevin, if your car has a catalytic converter then the platinum inside of it
>creates a chemical reaction that changes the choroflourocarbons
CFC's are the refrigernts and nothing to do with burning hydrocarbons.
>and
>carbonmonoxide gases into H2O  that is the water you see coming out of
>exhaust.  If you do not have a catalytic converter than you might want to
>be concerned.  As far as showing if the engine is in good condition or
>tuned correctly the answer is no.  It will produce H2O whether the engine
>is poorly tuned or running or running great.  It does show your Catalytic
>Converter is still good though.

No....

Ok petrol is hydrocarbons of different shapes and sizes, hydrocarbons
contain carbon and hydrogen.
Let's take benzene C6H12 6 carbons and 12 hydrogens,
now we burn it.
6*O2 + C6H12  --fire--> 6*CO2 + 6H20 6 carbondioxides  + 6 waters  As you
can see you get a lot of water from burning petrol, and hydrocarbons, if you
were burning pure benzene it would be half and half with CO2.

Now when you burn things in air at these temperatures and pressures you also
get N2 (nitrogen from the air) combining with oxygen from the air to form
nitrogendioxide.
NO2 is bad, we don't want it in our environment.  So it gets put in a
catalytic converter where it's tuned back into O2 and N2.
Same for sulphur dioxide.

Next unburned hydrocarbons (smog stuff) get burnt in the catalyst, they mix
with the air from the air pump and burn because it's so hot.

Carbonmonoxide CO (combines with haemoglobin in the blood and kills you
though suffocation) is combined with oxygen in the cat as well to produce
CO.  This is why people die from car fumes, you can't kill your self with a
catalysed car.

So basically water from your exhaust is perfectly normal, and all it's
showing you is your exhaust hasn't warmed up yet.  Once the exhaust gets up
to temperature the water won't condense.

If anyone is in doubt as to this, take a cold surface and hold it over a gas
flame, you will see the condensation.


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