US merchant carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key product of the industrial gas business that represents about $1.5bn in sales per year.
The merchant CO2 market is serviced by a complex supply chain where some companies are fully integrated in the CO2 supply chain as they produce the crude, purify it to liquid, and distribute to distributors and end-users. There are some companies that are strictly CO2 distributors.
As a product, CO2 is delivered in several forms including crude, gas, compressed liquid, and solid (ice), and is transferred via pipeline, bulk and micro-bulk trucks, cylinders, and as dry ice. There are many different sources of CO2, but it is primarily sourced from ethanol (fermentation), natural CO2 wells, ammonia, and hydrogen. It can also be captured from the gas streams emitted by power plants. There are plenty of untapped sources of CO2 in the Midwest (ethanol) and South (ammonia) that are not captured due to regional supply demand balances and the relatively high cost of capital for new plants.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
