by Rob Cockerill, with an update by Sam A. Rushing, Advanced Cryogenics, Ltd. | July 2019 (gasworld).
By the time this issue of gasworld goes to press and is in your hands, it’ll be one year since the biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) shortage of recent years erupted. The CO2 crisis of 2018 sent shockwaves through Europe and Mexico alike, bringing mainstream media and public attention to an industrial gas supply chain like only helium has previously demonstrated.
CO2 shortages are almost an annual occurrence, but last summer the CO2 paradox became more evident than ever before: plenty of it in the atmosphere, and yet not enough of it to carbonate our beer. So what happened?
Europe’s CO2 supply position had tightened in April, driven by the usual turnaround of maintenance procedures in ammonia plants…