oriansbelt
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Registered: 28-1-2007
Location: CA
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NOS vs. NOX?
I had a friend tell me that nitrici oxide(NOX for short) was a misconseption and that it is really nitrici dioxide(NOS) that is used in car and such.
I didn't want to argue with him but does this have any foundings at all? I've never heard anything like this before so I am really skeptical. And
sorry if this isn't the right place for this, I'm kinda new here and couldn't find a general chat area.
[Edited on 6-2-2007 by oriansbelt]
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woelen
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Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
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In cars, sometimes dinitrogen monoxide, N2O, is used as fuel enhancer. It makes combustion more intense and for that purpose some of the gas can be
mixed into the gaseous fuel, leading to more horsepowers. N2O also is used for anaestetics and it sometimes is called 'laughing gas'. It is non-toxic,
if inhaled in small quantities, but if it is inhaled, it must not displace air, otherwise too little oxygen is inhaled. It does not support human
breathing, despite the fact that it does support fuel combustion.
The other oxides, NO and NO2, are not used intentionally, they are formed as by-products in the combustion of fuels in cars. When N2O is used, then
the products of combustion can contain some NO and NO2 (together called NOx). But even without N2O, the result of fuel-combustion may contain some
NOx, due to combination of nitrogen and oxygen from the air. NOx is very harmful and for this reason, modern cars have catalysists, which remove most
NOx in the exhaust gases.
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