I just saw a post on Facebook about a supermarket whose shelves are low on pops and carbonated waters because of a CO² shortage. What’s to stop people from pulling CO² from the air and cleaning it of impurities to use it in the drink manufacturing process?
In: Chemistry
We aren’t going to “run out” of carbon dioxide. In the grand scheme of things, it is extremely abundant.
The issue is that there is a certain grade of CO2 which is suitable for use in food and beverages. There are strict rules as to what impurities may be present and how much.
If there is a hiccup in the supply chain for beverage-grade CO2, scrubbing the air would be a last resort. There are probably dozens of other ways to do it. But the bottling plant has to make a decision. If they think the shortage is temporary then they may just wait it out but with costs going up in the short term. If they think the shortage is permanent, then they have to develop a new supply chain and/or retool the factory which means higher costs in the short term.
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