Quote Originally Posted by DOUGAL25
Just curious, were did you get the chemical makeup of wax to be methane (CH4)? I know wax is a hydrocarbon, and that there isn't one set chemical formula for all candle wax, but I guess it doesn't make a big difference.

This does make absolute sense though, hydrocarbons + O2 -> CO2 + H2O + light + heat

According to the equation - where are these other gases, such as N, coming from? And yes, N isn't bad, as it composes roughly 78% of the air we breathe (just sucks to have it produced, cuz it drops down the overall percentage of CO2 being produced).
Yeah, I don't actually know the exact formula for wax. I just know that is a lipid composed of many hydrocarbons, just like you said . So it should produce CO2 when burned.

I also found this formula on wiki...

its says, "When air is the source of the oxygen, nitrogen is by far the largest part of the resultant flue gas."

CH4 + 2O2 + 7.52N2 → CO2 + 2H2O + 7.52N2 + heat

I havn't taken chem in a while, so my knowledge is a little limited. I'm having trouble figuring how having high amounts of nitrogen will affect the amount of CO2 produced. The nitrogen doesn't seem to affect the production CO2, it's just the largest product. Do you know for sure if having lots of Nitrogen will affect CO2 yield in combustion reactions?

Also, i was doing a little more digging and found that when oxidizing hydrocarbons, lots of CO is produced, some CO2, and little NO is produced. I know that CO is toxic to humans (affects hemoglobins affinity for O2), but I dont' know its effects on plants...

I guess i shall do some experiments with other plants before I try with the real thing ...