The document discusses carbon dioxide (CO2) usage in the food and beverage sector, which is a major component of the merchant CO2 industry. It states that while the beverage sector's growth is slow or flat, the food sector is where more significant expansions will be seen over time from growth in existing applications. Most of the industry's growth is expected to come from improvements in CO2 delivery systems and application equipment in the food sector, which can help processors expand operations and achieve greater efficiencies. Conservation and precision will be key to saving costs through technologies that deliver CO2 more efficiently for food processing and freezing.

1. SPECIAL FEATURE
www.gasworld.com/specialfeatures42 | gasworld • August 2015
C
arbon dioxide (CO2
) usage in
the food and beverage sector is a
major component of the merchant
CO2
industry, and has been for
many decades. The applications in the
food sector, of course, are more resilient
and diverse than soft drink or beverage
carbonation; however, both are important
to the long-term growth and success in
the CO2
industry.
On the growth front, the food sector
is where more diverse and significant
expansions will be noticed over time
compared to many other applications
for the product. The industry is keen to
develop new applications for use of the
commodity as a major mission for the
future. Historically, most new successes
for a new food-related application which
endure are occasional, even if such
occasional new uses can sometimes
represent significant growth. It is more
likely that most of the expansion of CO2
in
the food industry will largely come from
market growth of existing applications.
Aside from large captive CO2
use, such
as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the
food-related market in North America
should dominate all other single sectors
served individually, such as beverages,
dry ice pressing, and the sub-categories
of industrial usage such as Ph reduction,
metallurgy, welding, and greenhouse
enrichment. The percentage of growth
in food applications, as per my estimates,
may well exceed CO2
industry growth as
a whole.
Mixed market
As I have written in the past, the entire
merchant CO2
business is highly driven
by the food and beverage sectors, and thus
by the trends they follow throughout the
years. During prior times, when the oil
and gas industries took off significantly,
usage surrounding CO2
frac usage
expanded as well. And interestingly, with
some merchant firms, the steady food and
beverage businesses was almost taken for
granted for a period of time, in light of the
relatively ‘exciting’ oil and gas expansions
in North America. One such company
which took this posture was the former
Amerigas.
However, during these days of low
oil and natural gas prices there remains
high production of both commodities
domestically, but little usage surrounding
frac applications for CO2
. This is due to
prevalent trends found with hydraulic
fracturing. But this trend toward hydraulic
fracturing may be taking a turn, in favour
of other agents and specifically CO2
, due
to water disposal, recycling, and water
availability problems.
Today, growth in the food and beverage
sectors remains well focused, where
expansion tends to be a function of food
processing techniques and industry
growth; the food sector is extremely
resilient and should continue to be well
suited for (CO2
) growth in years ahead.
On the other hand, beverage applications
as a function of market utilisation are
growing at a very slow rate, or are flat, in
part since carbonated beverages in the US
are sometimes giving way to other types
of soft drinks.
It is clearly a mixed market in terms of
beverages. Soft drinks, in some developed
markets such as North America are
focusing on non-carbonated sports
drinks, bottled and canned water, and
specialty drinks. This does not mean that
carbonated drinks are a thing of the past;
new labels for carbonated beverages are
picking up the slack where the major soft
drinks are not gaining market share, so
there are a few new demands for new
carbonated products being delivered to
the markets. But in terms of breweries
and merchant CO2
usage, many of the
beer manufacturers have consolidated
An update
CO2
applications in
food and beverages
Sam A. Rushing explains why the industry is still significant among all others and where
future growth in CO2
demand is likely to emerge from.
August 2015 • gasworld | 43
SPECIAL FEATURE

2. SPECIAL FEATURE
www.gasworld.com/specialfeatures44 | gasworld • August 2015
gw
Sam A. Rushing is a chemist and
President of Advanced Cryogenics,
Ltd, a major CO2
and cryogenic gas
consultancy. The company celebrated
25 years last year and welcomes
enquiries for consulting expertise
across all areas of the industry.
E-mail: rushing@terrranova.net
Phone: +1 305 852 2597
www.carbondioxideconsultants.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Conservation and improved efficiencies are often
the calling card for existing and expanded use of the
product instead of other forms of refrigeration...”
and in some cases more CO2
is being
recovered from their fermentation
process, sometimes only used to back
pressure their systems and not boost
carbonation, as they claim. In the end, this
represents less merchant CO2
growth for
the beverage industry at large.
Most of the changes which we
are seeing these days related to food
processing are represented by the
improvement of delivery systems into
or for the food product itself rather than
a variety of new applications for food
processing. The actual hardware, controls,
engineering, design and precision
behind delivering the right temperature
as a product of using the cryogen is key
to making the very best of any food
cooling or freezing operation. Therefore,
application equipment – along with
specific components of the hardware –
represent most of the new developments
in the food-related part of the CO2
industry. The basic generation of CO2
snow, and gaseous applications in MAP
(modified atmosphere packaging), are
evolving via equipment options, as are
cryogenic freezers of all types, automated
snow applicators, and dry ice pressing
operations. Basically, much of the same is
taking place in terms of basic food-related
applications – actual new applications
are the domain of both the major gas
companies and the larger food processors.
Precision is key to saving money
With improvements in CO2
delivery
systems, and generally the application
equipment found in the food sector,
more gas companies are aiming to create
a form of precision behind the way their
machines work and interact with the CO2
and the food product.
Given that all CO2
is essentially
a commodity, and assuming the
specifications are the same, the industry
or specific gas companies hope to make
this commodity a proprietary brand
via the use of their technology. This
technology, and making a commodity
gas proprietary, is generally reduced to
engineering expertise. Beyond flour and
dough applications for CO2
, the same
is true of meat and other food product
processing operations.
With improvements which are being
made in the application equipment, more
CO2
can be sold to customers who expand
their operations, hoping for greater
savings and efficiencies brought about by
such new or improved methodology and
technologies.
Conservation and improved efficiencies
are often the calling card for existing
and expanded use of the product instead
of other forms of refrigeration. In the
large food processing plants, reducing
losses – which may appear to be small
for individual processing lines or plants
– can represent savings in the range of
thousands to hundreds of thousands
of dollars with today’s more efficient
cryogenic technologies. This includes
freezers, to cabinet machines, and not
to forgetting snow production devices.
Freezers have come a long way since their
inception, in terms of quality, improved
control mechanisms, and configuration;
upgrades from flighted freezers which are
used for products which can be fragile or
can stick together involve new, proprietary
configurations. Other improvements
these days involve enhanced air flow
characteristics in cryogenic spiral and
linear freezers, which are said to enhance
temperature reduction and general
efficiencies using a comparable amount of
CO2
in the cooling or chilling process.
What this means for the gas supplier is
a long-term opportunity to serve the food
and beverage industries, and to continue
to develop innovative approaches to
achieve more efficient results. As for the
processor, this means – over time – more
innovative and creative solutions will
become available for the application of
CO2
in the food industry.
Perhaps many of today’s upgrades and
changes with respect to the food and
beverage industries include company
mergers and acquisitions. It is significant
that the two major CO2
‘independents’
were acquired by major industrial gas
firms (EPCO Carbon Dioxide by Air
Products and Continental Carbonic by
MATHESON), all of which lead to a
better chance for the entities and plants
serving these companies to improve their
ability to develop and deploy applications
for food and beverage service. Given that
most of the major CO2
suppliers have
facilities to serve as test settings for new
machines and the application of various
food products, such opportunities should
be made available to the significant
tonnage and markets now owned by the
new operators of these CO2
merchant
firms. The long-term development of
applications, and their improvements are
the domain of the CO2
majors – at least
this has been the case in North America.
In the long-term, the food industry,
particularly the meat processing sector
and also including poultry and seafood,
will continue to have core applications
for CO2
. Further, the improvement and
fine tuning of application equipment
from nozzles, injectors, temperature
controllers to a variety of machines
which manually or automatically feed
and reduce the temperature of food
products, will continue to evolve in the
industry. This will, in some cases, create
new applications for food products
and continue to improve efficiencies
surrounding the use of the cryogen,
reduce labour demands, and gain speed in
the process of operations.