Jennifer Willis-Jones, Head of FW Nitrogen at CRU, said she is not expecting a European squeeze on CO2 availability considering the ammonia forecast at the recent gasworld CO2 Virtual Summit.
Traditionally one of the largest sources of food grade CO2 in Europe has been from ammonia plants. CO2 is a by-product of ammonia which is the critical element in fertilisers.
The first step in manufacturing ammonia involves taking a hydrocarbon molecule like natural gas and splitting the “hydro” from the “carbon”: The hydrogen gets turned into ammonia for fertilizer, and the carbon gets turned into CO2, which is captured, purified, and then kept as a gas, refrigerated liquid or as dry ice for all sorts of uses.
It is for this reason that trends ammonia market can reflect those of CO2, something which Willis-Jones explored last Wednesday. Reflecting on the 2018 CO2 shortage, she explained that whilst this resulted in many headlines, it was in fact no concern to the ammonia industry.
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