The medical field also relies on high-purity CO2. It is purchased by hospitals for insufflation—the act of bloating the body cavity with gas during laparoscopic or minimally invasive surgeries to give doctors room to operate. It is also mixed with oxygen to stimulate deep breathing in patients or used in cryotherapy to destroy abnormal tissue.
The primary sources of commercial CO2 are ammonia fertilizer plants, hydrogen production facilities, and ethanol refineries. In these facilities, CO2 is generated as a byproduct of chemical reactions. Industrial gas companies buy this raw gas, purify it to meet food or medical-grade standards, liquefy it under pressure, and distribute it to end-users.
To understand why entities buy CO2, one must first examine the diverse and critical applications of the gas across various sectors. The largest commercial consumer of carbon dioxide is the food and beverage industry. When consumers drink a carbonated beverage, they are consuming CO2 that was purchased by the manufacturer to provide that signature fizz. Beyond carbonation, liquid and solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) are heavily utilized for chilling and freezing food products during processing and transit. Because CO2 can achieve extremely low temperatures and sublimates directly from a solid to a gas without leaving liquid residue, it is the gold standard for preserving the cold chain for meat, dairy, and frozen meals. Furthermore, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) uses CO2 to displace oxygen inside food packaging, significantly delaying spoilage and extending shelf life without the need for chemical preservatives. buy co2
This reliance on byproduct capture creates a highly volatile market. Because CO2 is a secondary product, its availability is entirely dependent on the economic health and seasonal operation of the primary industries. For instance, ammonia plants often schedule maintenance shutdowns during the summer months when fertilizer demand is low. This predictable drop in production frequently leads to regional CO2 shortages precisely when the food and beverage industry needs it most for summer ice cream and beverage production. Furthermore, when global natural gas prices spike—as seen in Europe in the early 2020s—ammonia plants (which use natural gas as a feedstock) often shut down because they become unprofitable to operate. These closures inadvertently trigger severe CO2 shortages, leaving food processors scrambling and prices skyrocketing.
Despite the fact that carbon dioxide is abundant in our atmosphere, the supply chain for purchasing industrial-grade CO2 is surprisingly fragile and complex. Unlike oxygen or nitrogen, which can be cost-effectively filtered and separated directly from ambient air using air separation units, capturing CO2 from the atmosphere on a commercial scale is still energetically and financially expensive. Consequently, the vast majority of carbon dioxide bought and sold today is captured as a byproduct of other industrial processes. The medical field also relies on high-purity CO2
Today, innovative companies are buying CO2 not just to use and release it, but to permanently sequester it or transform it into valuable products. In the construction industry, companies are purchasing CO2 to inject into concrete during the mixing process. The CO2 chemically reacts with the cement, mineralizing into a solid that permanently traps the carbon while actually increasing the compressive strength of the concrete.
In the industrial and energy sectors, the purchase of CO2 takes on an entirely different scale. For decades, the oil and gas industry has been a major buyer of carbon dioxide for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). In this process, CO2 is injected into depleting oil reservoirs to reduce the viscosity of the oil and increase underground pressure, allowing companies to extract crude oil that would otherwise be unreachable. This process alone accounts for a massive portion of the global bulk CO2 market. The primary sources of commercial CO2 are ammonia
In the corporate world, buying CO2 is no longer just about buying gas cylinders for a factory; it is increasingly about purchasing carbon removal credits or raw CO2 captured directly from waste streams to achieve net-zero climate goals. This has given rise to the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) industry.