ABSTRACT
Hydrocarbon burning (HCB) is the oxidation of any molecule that contains mainly Hydrogen and carbon. Such reactions have long been used to produce energy. HCB is a subject of great interest because its energy production is vital to our current industrial civilization, but some of its residual waste molecules can present problems. The chapter discusses the use of algebraic chemistry to study and characterize HCB, and to identify candidate alternative ideas. Hydrocarbon burning, is the primary source of energy for our current level of industrial civilization. But HCB presents problems. It generates carbon dioxide, CO2, and that may affect our climate adversely. The main issues are exposed with the analysis of methane, even though the scenarios where the issues play out involve much bigger hydrocarbon molecules, such as heptane and octane, used in vehicles.
