Carbon monoxide is a colorless, flammable gas that is highly toxic due to its ability to out-compete oxygen to form a complex with hemoglobin. When this happens, oxygen transport in the blood is impeded and unconsciousness and death may result. Carbon monoxide is of great industrial importance (e.g., as a fuel or producer gas) in metallurgic processes that isolate various metals from their oxides by reduction with coke. It is also a key intermediate in the catalytic production of various hydrocarbons by industry, including the production of alcohols, Sabatier methanation, and Fischer-Tropsch hydrogenation. Incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (i.e., oxidation of hydrocarbons in a limited supply of oxygen) in automobiles and industrial activity (e.g., energy production) are major anthropogenic sources of CO to the atmosphere. Other sources of carbon monoxide to the atmosphere are the oxidation of methane by the atmospheric oxidant hydroxyl radical and biomass burning (e.g., slash-and-burn agriculture practices).
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