The 2018 European carbon dioxide supply crisis
June 29, 2018 1:37 AM   Subscribe

 
The Midlands crumpet plant is still open. All's well our kid.
posted by arcticseal at 2:00 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


Given that the story seems to be about the synchronisation of apparently unrelated industries (in this case fertiliser and beverages) and the importance of supply chains, I consider it to be a glance into the delights the future has in store for us in the next couple of years.
posted by Grangousier at 2:07 AM on June 29, 2018 [23 favorites]


I thought the whole Climate Change/Global Warming Crisis was due to TOO MUCH CO2... suddenly the "climate skeptics" are starting to make sense... then again, I live a couple miles from an ocean and they tell me we've been having a drought/water shortage here... hmmm...
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:13 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thankfully - as it is National Cream Tea Day - provisions of scones and other essential cuisine of this isle seem to be unaffected.

Water for making the tea, on the other hand, may become more problematic as this heatwave bakes in for a long summer, demand outstrips supply, and we head towards possible shortages (even after a relentlessly wet winter and spring refilling our reservoirs).

But on the CO2 front - I would not like to be serving behind the bar of a Wetherspoon if England progress to a semi-final or final and at that point supplies of beer run out.
posted by Wordshore at 2:17 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Wordshore: the CO₂ shortage is beginning to affect water supplies too (if only in Norway at present): "A lack of rain and the onset of another period of unusually warm weather has prompted officials in several communities in Southern Norway to ban all watering of lawns and gardens. In Oslo, the problem has been compounded by a shortage of CO2 used at the city’s main water treatment plant." (source).
posted by misteraitch at 2:45 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Beer and Cider rationed! Pig Welfare at Risk! Coca-Cola Production Affected!

So you're saying we'll be forced to consume less alcohol, less meat, and less sugary/acidic soft drinks?

The frozen food delivery thing is interesting - I assumed they used vans with refrigeration systems rather than just dry ice packs. Of course it's not frozen food supplies that are hit, its home-delivery of frozen groceries. You can still just buy them in the actual shop.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:24 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


You can still just buy them in the actual shop.

And risk touching a pleb?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:25 AM on June 29, 2018 [9 favorites]


Don't know about how shortages may effect prices, but I was surprised to learn that compressed CO2 generally costs less than compressed air.
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:30 AM on June 29, 2018


However, a number of big mainland European fertiliser plants closed down for routine maintenance. And in the UK, only two of five plants that supply CO2 are operating at the moment.

Peak consumption for fertiliser is the winter, so chemical companies have traditionally scaled back production as summer approaches. Also, the current low price of ammonia means producers have little incentive to restart production quickly.

It's a case of bad timing that several plants wound down operations together, just as demand for food and drink was being ramped up by the good weather and football's World Cup.
Routine maintenance... just bad timing... oh and the market is fucked and we've been efficiently cutting contingency and redundancy for decades but there's simply nothing to be done.

I think smart investors are going to go long on bad luck and shrugged shoulders in the run up to Brexit.
posted by fullerine at 4:12 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is news to me. I was well aware of the helium shortage but not the CO2 issue. Too bad we can’t just extract it directly from the atmosphere...
posted by caution live frogs at 4:58 AM on June 29, 2018


You can still just buy them in the actual shop.

This sounded a bit dismissive - home delivery is actually very useful for people who cannot easily get out of the house for food shopping. Hopefully though the supermarkets can figure out work-arounds rather than just stopping delivering frozen products.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:21 AM on June 29, 2018 [7 favorites]


This is news to me. I was well aware of the helium shortage but not the CO2 issue. Too bad we can’t just extract it directly from the atmosphere...

To do what you are proposing requires far too much PID-controlled energy. For makers of booze which take non-PID controlled energy in the form of plant sugars in an anerobic environment and capturing the outgassing which is considered CO2 by most is rather expensive to refine to the same level of purity you get from taking natural gas and making water+CO2 and then buying it from a natural gas -> CO2 seller.

$40,000 was the last time I priced a booze reaction -> CO2 refiner and that was a hunk of used eq. Small scale CO2 extractors are $30Kish and based on cryo-sterling devices. Sure, you COULD make your own if you have access to the metal and, say, a HAAS machine.....
posted by rough ashlar at 5:37 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Given that the story seems to be about the synchronisation of apparently unrelated industries (in this case fertiliser and beverages) and the importance of supply chains, I consider it to be a glance into the delights the future has in store for us in the next couple of years.

Indeed. We'll see more things like this, probably, and the key is in the "apparently unrelated" factor -- complex but fragile systems (or so says Taleb, but it makes sense to me too). In every case people will say it was an "accident" or "bad luck" and "nobody's fault" which is all sort of true and also sort of not, because of interconnectedness and dependencies.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:43 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


Proper ale does not have carbon dioxide pumped into it unnaturally and I honestly believe that all beer would be better without it. Let’s see this as an opportunity!
posted by Segundus at 5:44 AM on June 29, 2018 [13 favorites]


I've heard of at least one brewery (Lolo Peak in Montana) using CO2 capturing technology to hold on to the gas lost during the fermentation and use it to carbonate the final beer. I believe they use a system called COBrew. Here it says Lolo Peak Brewery estimates to save 30% in costs and have a 90% emission reduction by using the system.
posted by msbrauer at 5:52 AM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]


Proper ale does not have carbon dioxide pumped into it unnaturally and I honestly believe that all beer would be better without it. Let’s see this as an opportunity!

I doubt the supply of bottle conditioned beers is big enough to fuel the World Cup fans. Unfortunately sports run on force carbonated macro brews. And I wouldn’t want a bunch of hooligans drinking up all the wells bombardier
posted by dis_integration at 6:48 AM on June 29, 2018


Climeworks has a plant that currently collects CO2 from the air and pumps it into a greenhouse to boost plant growth. They plan on building more plants that can make CO2 that is suitable for food and beverage use. If these shortages become a regular thing, it could take off faster.
posted by domo at 7:05 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


NOT MY CRUMPETS!!!
posted by rednikki at 9:39 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


On the brewery front I believe that Sierra Nevada also captures their CO2 outflow and uses it to carbonate beers.
posted by caphector at 9:49 AM on June 29, 2018


the crumpets! this has gone Too Far
posted by poffin boffin at 12:45 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


It Is 4pm And I Am Making Rubbish Crumpets, AMA
posted by poffin boffin at 1:02 PM on June 29, 2018


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