Carbon dioxide

Sold CO2 comes from ammonia, ethanol and gas plants; it makes urea, carbonates drinks and floods oil fields, and runs short when fertiliser plants stop.

Commodity chemicals · Industrial gases · No. 17

• Single chemical
• Feedstock: Oil, gas or coal
• about 230 Mt a year used, of which over 20 Mt merchant
• 0.1 t CO₂e per t
• HS 281121

In 2021 two fertiliser plants shut on high gas prices, and Britain lost 60% of the CO₂ for its drinks and meat.

Chart: Illustration: Carbon dioxide

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Sold CO2 is nearly always a by-product, captured from almost-pure streams at ammonia and hydrogen plants, ethanol fermenters and gas processing, then purified and liquefied.

Three things to know

1. About 57% of all CO₂ used goes into urea fertiliser, which releases it again once spread on fields.
2. The merchant market is only over 20 Mt a year, tiny beside the 37 Gt of fossil CO₂ emitted.
3. India's merchant demand was about 3,565 t a day in 2024, while its urea plants use about 21 Mt a year captively.

The journey

1. 1 Source plantAmmonia, ethanol or gas processing streams
2. 2 CapturePure streams just compressed and dried
3. 3 PurificationCarbon and distillation to 99.9% food grade
4. 4 LiquefactionStored at -20 C and 20 bar
5. 5 DistributionTankers to bottlers; pipelines to oil fields

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