Where does all the carbon monoxide (CO) go?

Question

This gas emits from every motor vehicle on earth and all we hear about is carbon dioxide (CO2).
Does the CO evolve into CO2 ?

Answer 1

Yes.

Carbon monoxide is very unstable and combines immediately with Oxygen to make Carbon dioxide. CO2 is the lowest and safest form of any carbon product. (so don't believe all that crap about it being a poisonous gas.)

The reason CO is so dangerous is that if you breathe it in, it will rob your blood of the oxygen it needs to form CO2.

Answer 2

CO is a small amount of the carbon emissions from the internal combustion engine.

CO reacts readily with oxygen to make carbon dioxide and its lifetime in the atmosphere is small so it is not an emission gas of consequence.

CO is a problem when inhaled because it bonds more strongly with hemoglobin in the blood than does carbon dioxide and prevents the normal exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen. This makes it a poison when inhaled.

Answer 3

Carbon monoxide in the atmosphere

MOPITT 2000 global carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide, though thought of as a pollutant today, has always been present in the atmosphere, chiefly as a product of volcanic activity. It occurs dissolved in molten volcanic rock at high pressures in the earth's mantle. Carbon monoxide contents of volcanic gases vary from less than 0.01% to as much as 2% depending on the volcano. It also occurs naturally in bushfires. Because natural sources of carbon monoxide are so variable from year to year, it is extremely difficult to accurately measure natural emissions of the gas.

Carbon monoxide has an indirect radiative forcing effect by elevating concentrations of methane and tropospheric ozone through chemical reactions with other atmospheric constituents (e.g., the hydroxyl radical, OH.) that would otherwise destroy them. Carbon monoxide is created when carbon-containing fuels are burned incompletely. Through natural processes in the atmosphere, it is eventually oxidized to carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide concentrations are both short-lived in the atmosphere and spatially variable.

Anthropogenic CO from automobile and industrial emissions may contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming. In urban areas carbon monoxide, along with aldehydes, reacts photochemically to produce peroxy radicals. Peroxy radicals react with nitrogen oxide to increase the ratio of NO2 to NO, which reduces the quantity of NO that is available to react with ozone. Carbon monoxide is also a constituent of tobacco smoke...

Answer 4

it goes into the plants and trees. we need plants to survive
we need O2 They need CO2 which we breathe out

Answer 5

carbon cycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle