Are you sure you want to know?
It's going to be long winded.
OK here goes, don't say I didn't warn you.
I took data from exhaust emissions analysis which showed a breakdown of the elements contained within a typical sample.
This includes
- CO2 --Carbon dioxide 63679.7 ppm
- CO --Carbon monoxide 80.6 ppm
- HCHO--Formaldehyde 1.3 ppm
- HNCO --Isocyanic acid 0.9 ppm
- Total Methanic Hydrocarbons --14.7 ppm
- Non Methanic Hydrcarbons 58 ppm
I used this to arrive at total CO2 of approximately 63830 ppm give or take.
Our tractor is a 20 V12 Mercedes
We operate it at around 2000 Revs/minute
Being a 4 stroke engine it has 1 firing stroke every second revolution.
20 Lt x 1000 strokes/minute gives you 20 000 Lt emissions/minute
We travel at 7 km/hr with a 10m wide sowing implement
This gives us an area speed of 7 Ha/hr. Or about 8.6 minutes to the ha
So that would be 172 000 Lt of emissions/ha
At say 64 000 ppm CO2 or 6.4%
The molecular weight (mw)of CO2 is 44 being Carbon mw 12 and Oxygen mw 16
Two parts O is 32 and one part C is 12 Total 44
mass = (44.0 g/mole)x(1 atm)x(1 L) / [(0.0821 Latm/moleK)x(273K)]
= 1.96 g
If it is a liquid or a solid,
Density = mass / volume -----> mass = density x volume
Density liquid = 771 g/L
Density solid = 1600 g/L
Mass liquid = 1 L x 771 g/L = 771 g
mass solid = 1 L x 1600 g/L = 1600 g
I will take the mass of a solid Lt of CO2 which is 1600 g and assume that as calculated above the solid CO2 component of our emissions is 6.4%
So that is 1600/100 times 6.4 = 102.4g / Lt of emissions
Times that by 172 000 Lt Emissions created every Ha is 17544 kg of CO2 / Ha
Now as I mentioned the molecular weight of CO2 is 44 and that of Carbon is 12 and the molecular weight of Oxygen is 16 and the carbon oxygen ratio of CO2 is obviously 2:1
So I calculate that the 1 kg of CO2 contains 270 g of carbon and 730 g of oxygen approximately.
OK now we are getting to the business end.
My answer:
17544 kg of CO2 times .270 = 4736 kg of carbon per Ha
That is my calculation so Jodi may have been wrong and I may be wrong too, I am just a farmer not a scientist, she said 1100 kg carbon/Ha and I am saying it is 4736 kg carbon/ Ha
Now I have seen the BP calculation that 1 Lt of diesel will produce 2.3 kg of CO2 based on the amount of carbon present in the fuel. They say that there can be no more because there is only so much carbon in the fuel but I believe that they are false calculations because they are not taking into account the amount of C in the atmosphere that is sucked into the engine and combined in the combustion chamber with that 1 Lt of diesel.
I could do a whole new calculation to work out how much carbon from the atmosphere is mixed with the amount of fuel required to cover 1 Ha with my tractor and this should give me the same answer as I just calculated of total C exhausted from the engine in the time it takes to sow 1 Ha
Not tonight.... sorry.