chemical · input
Food-grade CO2 used to carbonate beer, sparkling wine, and soft drinks; primarily a byproduct of ammonia fertilizer manufacturing; UK crisis 2022 showed that 2-3 ammonia plants supply majority of regional CO2 — energy price shocks cascade to beverage supply
3
Source countries
4
Companies
2
Goods affected
0
Claims on record
What depends on it
2 essential American goods rely on co2 for beverage carbonation somewhere upstream in their supply chain.
Where it comes from
Share of global supply, by country.
| Country | Share of supply |
|---|---|
| USUnited States | 35% |
| DEGermany | 8% |
| GBUnited Kingdom | 5% |
Who makes it
4 companies produce co2 for beverage carbonation.
UK ammonia and fertilizer producer whose Billingham plant supplied approximately 30% of UK food-grade CO2 as a byproduct; August 2022 shutdown (due to natural gas price spike from Russia energy cutoff) triggered national beer, meat, and food packaging CO2 shortage; subsidiary of CF Industries (US)
Linde plc (NYSE/FWB: LIN; HQ Dublin, Ireland; operational HQ Guildford UK; ~$32B revenue 2023) is the world's largest industrial gas company. Linde owns and operates one of the two largest liquid oxygen cryogenic tanker fleets globally — thousands of vacuum-insulated trailers delivering LOX to hospitals, steel mills, chemical plants, and semiconductor fabs in 80+ countries. Linde does not primarily manufacture its own tankers (purchases from Chart Industries and other OEMs) but specifies custom vacuum-insulated designs for its fleet. Linde's medical oxygen business (hospital LOX supply) is the dominant fleet use case. Linde also supplies liquid oxygen rocket propellant to aerospace customers including NASA and commercial launch operators.
Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE: APD; Allentown, PA; ~$12B revenue) licenses the APCI (Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.) natural gas liquefaction process technology used in many small- and mid-scale LNG liquefaction trains worldwide, including utility peak-shaving plants. The APCI propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant (C3MR) process dominates large baseload LNG export trains globally (used in >90% of world's baseload LNG capacity), but Air Products also licenses adapted cycles for smaller peak-shaving applications. Air Products competes with Linde Engineering for small-scale liquefaction process technology licensing. Air Products is also the world's largest industrial gas producer, supplying nitrogen and other gases used in LNG facility construction and purging.
German private industrial gas company; invested $25M in neon recycling technologies (2024) with 500,000 m³/year recovery facility established in Germany. Active in 30+ European and Asian markets. One of the top 5-7 global neon suppliers. Also a major provider of medical and industrial gases across Europe.
