How much carbon dioxide does an average commercial jet airplane produce?

Question

How much carbon dioxide does an average commercial jet airplane produce?

Answer 1

There is of course a lot of variations in the size of airplane and distance traveled, but one can assume that an "average" airliner would consume around 5 tonnes of fuel for every hour -- with something like 200 people on board.

Jet fuel is a complex mixture, but it can be assumed that it is on average similar to C12H26 hydrocarbon, a molecule that should weight 170 g per mole, and produce 528 g of CO2 per mole, assuming complete combustion.  Therefore, the average jetliner would release about 15 tonnes of CO2 per hour.