As I have mentioned in other articles written for gasworld, when the ‘man or woman on the street’ thinks of carbon dioxide (CO2), this is often related to soft drink carbonation, and CO2 in the atmosphere. In the gases industry, however, it is a very important component of the merchant market worldwide.
Toward this end, many of the US markets for carbonated CO2 demands are largely flat; and they represent near 20% of the CO2 demands in the US merchant market. On the other hand, the demands in most of the emerging economies, or developing world, are highly geared toward the soft drink industry. I have worked in Africa and the Middle East, for example, and their comfort zone today is to steadily pursue the soft drink industry; primarily serving the demands of the ever-present, and growing Coca-Cola and Pepsi carbonation demands.
However, over time, this stance surrounding a predominantly soft drink supply, rather than developing a widely expanded range of applications is only slowing down progress.
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