“ carbon reduction or carbon increase? This is really a confusing question! ”
By: Emma Zhang
Source: foodily daily food (ID: foodily)
For the food and beverage industry, carbon dioxide has always been a “love hate” existence.As the “public enemy” of the global climate problem, carbon dioxide can be said to be a stumbling block to the sustainable development of all industries in all countries. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions, or “sequestering” excess carbon dioxide in the air, has been a crucial part of sustainable strategies for many years.More and more food and beverage companies around the world are trying to convert the captured carbon dioxide into usable products. As a global leader in carbonated drinks and a major user of carbon dioxide, Coca Cola is no exception to join this boom. At the end of August, Coca Cola announced that its partners in Europe (bottlers) would cooperate with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop a scalable method to convert captured carbon dioxide into sugar, and strive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Coca Cola’s supply chain.Source: ipmarkOn the one hand, it tries to reduce the “free” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; on the other hand, carbon dioxide is regarded as a “lifeline” by major food enterprises like a “life-saving straw”.This year, there has been a shortage of carbon dioxide around the world. The gradual tightening of carbon dioxide supply has seriously hit enterprises in various countries. The food and beverage industry, in particular, has suffered a lot. Industry giants including Coca Cola, Tyson Foods, kraft Heinz and so on have been looking for sufficient supply sources, while more small and medium-sized enterprises are facing the risk of stopping production or even closing down.Is carbon dioxide surplus or deficient? How to treat the two seemingly contradictory issues of sustainable carbon reduction and industrial carbon production dialectically? How can the food and beverage industry ease and resolve the pain of carbon dioxide shortage?
Carbon dioxide has been lacking. Why is it the most serious this year?
As an important industrial raw material, carbon dioxide can react with other substances to generate synthesis gas, and then generate methanol, fuel, alcohol and other hydrocarbons, or make chemicals, olefins, urea and so on. In addition, it can also be made into degradable plastics and become food raw materials. It is widely used in food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.Source: edu.rsc.orgHowever, not all carbon dioxide emissions can meet food grade standards. For example, carbon dioxide with a purity of 99.99%, even if it contains only 20 parts per billion of benzene, is still a mixture containing impurities and cannot be used in food processing.Before being used as raw materials or processed as food, most food enterprises will use a complex seven step purification process to purify them to reach food grade. The most effective way to prepare carbon dioxide is to separate carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms by burning natural gas. The hydrogen atoms combine with nitrogen to produce ammonia (final product), and the carbon atoms combine with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide (by-product), which is then sold to industries that need it.Commercial carbon dioxideNow, in order to get out of the energy crisis, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and other European countries that have strongly called for giving up coal and advocating environmental protection recently announced to reopen coal power plants or take measures to support coal power projects. This “reverse” move may alleviate the temporary crisis, but it may not solve the problem of carbon dioxide shortage fundamentally.In the “low carbon” years, food enterprises are struggling to surviveFaced with the frequent shortage of carbon dioxide, how should food enterprises in Europe and the United States deal with it?Take the UK as an example. The carbon dioxide “cut-off” in 2018 is enough to go down in history: local beer began to be supplied in limited quantities, the manufacturers producing barbecue meat did not have enough supply, ice cream production was reduced in large quantities, and the processing of crunchy cakes was suspended… Food production in the UK almost came to a halt. With the exaggeration of local media, it was described that “the world almost came to an end” after the lack of carbon dioxide.In that year, Coca Cola had “suspended” the production of some carbonated beverages; Heineken’s production in the UK was also greatly affected. Not only food processing, but also the transportation of frozen food is seriously affected by the shortage of carbon dioxide. Dry ice made by compressing carbon dioxide is the core of maintaining the cold chain. Because of the shortage of dry ice, ocado, the leading supermarket chain in Britain, had to ration frozen food.Source: Getty ImagesSince 2018, the UK has faced an imminent carbon dioxide crisis every few months. In October 2021, the British government was forced to inject “tens of millions” of pounds into CF industry, which reopened the Billingham factory in September of that year. Even so, the shortage of carbon dioxide caused by the continuous rise of natural gas prices has become the normal state of economic life.The large-scale carbon dioxide shortage has led to the rising production and fresh-keeping costs of food enterprises. On the eve of Christmas last year, Michael Bailey, chairman of the turkey organization of the National Farmers Union (NFU) in England and Wales, revealed: “turkey production will definitely decrease during Christmas. Some larger producers have decided to reduce production, ranging from 20% to 50%, just to reduce the risk.”Empty Turkey shelves in British supermarkets source: Times
Domestic supply can not be counted on, and overseas imports are “a drop in the bucket”. It is reported that the British government has decided to focus on the overseas import market, but it can only solve less than 20% of the gap supply.Energy prices rise, raw materials shortage, consumption panic… When “Black Swans” keep coming, most food enterprises can only choose to reduce production or stop production to reduce economic losses. Can’t you really find another way?From “carbon capture” to “carbon substitution”, how can the food industry meet the difficulties?In 1983, the Kraljic matrix proposed by the economist Peter Kraljic was published in the Harvard Business Review that year, and is now widely used as an analytical tool for the company’s procurement portfolio. The matrix can also weigh the impact of supply chain risk and product shortage on profits through a simple analysis of the supply and demand situation of a certain country and industry.However, the above two schemes can not completely replace the main carbon dioxide production and can not meet a large gap. Therefore, it is particularly important to find a long-term solution. At present, among various carbon reduction and control technologies, carbon capture technology has become the focus of research. Carbon capture refers to the technology of collecting, storing or reusing the carbon dioxide generated by large power plants, steel plants, chemical plants and other emission sources, including three links of carbon dioxide capture, transportation and storage. It can reduce carbon emissions per unit of power generation by 85% – 90%, known as the “last kilometer” of the zero carbon road.Source: GoogleThe UK has planned to establish and promote this technology in the 2030s. In order to ensure that carbon capture is feasible, a large amount of investment in infrastructure is required. Besides the UK, start-ups in Switzerland and Canada, Japan’s IHI and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are also starting and building large-scale carbon capture plants.At present, there are 19 plants with direct air capture carbon dioxide in operation around the world. With the rise of the global DAC plant construction boom, 85 tons of carbon dioxide can be captured every year by 2030, and 980 tons of carbon dioxide can be captured every year by 2050.Solid state DAC technology source: ResearchGATEIf “borrowing carbon” from the air is regarded as “open source”, then reducing the use scenarios of carbon dioxide, or developing its substitutes, is an important measure of “throttling”. In 2020, the Royal Society of chemistry proposed to develop new gas raw materials as carbon dioxide substitutes, and nitrogen was the best “alternative”.
Source: PepsiCo official website
In the food and beverage industry, the utilization of nitrogen began with the rise of nitrogen filled coffee a few years ago. Since then, nitrogen beer and nitrogen milk have appeared one after another. At the end of February this year, PepsiCo launched a brand-new nitrogen cola. The foam is softer and denser, and the surface is smooth, with a “velvet” feeling. “Softer than soft drinks” has become the biggest selling point of nitrogen filled drinks.In addition to taste optimization, the “quality” of nitrogen is neutral, and it will not cause damage to the mouth and intestines of consumers due to acidity, which has also become a reason for its gradual popularity.In another consumption area of carbon dioxide – fresh food preservation, people are also reducing their dependence on carbon dioxide through a variety of technologies. Nitrogen is an ideal inert gas. The temperature of the food preserved with nitrogen will not change and the water will not be lost. It can form a perfect replacement for the traditional carbon dioxide preservation.In addition to modified atmosphere fresh-keeping, in recent years, the food industry has also developed new fresh-keeping technologies such as low-temperature plasma sterilization, edible coating, nano zinc oxide, etc., which further reduce the “appearance rate” of carbon dioxide in the field of fresh-keeping while enriching fresh-keeping means, improving fresh-keeping effects and cost performance.Source: thedrinksbusiness.comIt is worth noting that carbon dioxide, as a representative of “safe, energy-saving and environmental friendly” natural refrigerants, is widely used in Europe. Nowadays, carbon dioxide refrigerant has become the mainstream choice of supermarkets and convenience stores in Europe,Why do carbon dioxide and the food industry “love each other and kill each other”?生物乙醇可以作为补充产生二氧化碳的方案之一。如今英国每年可以生产大约2.6亿升生物乙醇，生物乙醇不仅可作为可持续燃料，也将满足多个行业需求。早在2007年，英国糖业公司曾耗资2000万英镑开设了首家生物乙醇工厂，用当地种植的甜菜生产生物燃料，每年从70万吨甜菜中生产7000万升乙醇。从厌氧消化技术工厂购买二氧化碳是解决方案之二。厌氧消化指利用细菌从有机废物中提取气体，该技术目前已在英国投入使用。然而，上述两种方案不能完全替代主要的二氧化碳生产，无法满足大量缺口。所以，寻找一个长期的解决方案尤为重要。当前，在各种减碳、控碳技术中，碳捕获技术成为研究重点。碳捕获是指将大型发电厂、钢铁厂、化工厂等排放源产生的二氧化碳收集并加以封存或再利用的技术，包括二氧化碳捕集、运输以及封存三个环节。它可以使单位发电碳排放减少85%-90%，被誉为零碳之路的“最后一公里”。图源：Google英国已经计划在21世纪30年代建立并推广这项技术。为了确保碳捕获可行，需要在基础设施方面进行大量投资。英国之外，瑞士和加拿大的初创企业，日本IHI及三菱重工等也在启动和建设大型碳捕集工厂。目前，全球有19个 直接空气捕捉（Direct Air Capture）二氧化碳的工厂在运行。随着全球DAC工厂建设热潮的兴起，到2030年可实现每年捕获85 吨二氧化碳 ，2050年则能每年捕获980吨二氧化碳 。固体DAC技术 图源：ResearchGate如果将向空气“借碳”视为“开源”，那么减少二氧化碳的使用场景，或者说开发其替代品，则是“节流”的重要举措。2020年，英国皇家化学学会提出开发新的气体原料作为二氧化碳代替品，氮气就是最佳“备选”。图源：百事可乐官网在食品饮料行业，对氮气的利用始于数年前充氮咖啡的兴起。此后，氮气啤酒、氮气牛奶纷纷出现。就在今年2月下旬，百事可乐推出全新的氮气可乐，泡沫更加柔和绵密，表面光滑，富有“天鹅绒”般的感觉。“比软饮料更软”成为充氮饮料的最大卖点。除了口感优化，氮气“品质”中性，不会因酸性对消费者口腔和肠胃造成损害，也成为渐受青睐的原因。在二氧化碳的另一个消耗领域——生鲜食品保鲜中，人们也正在通过多种技术减少对二氧化碳的依赖。氮气是理想的惰性气体，用氮气保鲜的食品温度不会发生变化，水分也不会丢失，能够对传统的二氧化碳保鲜形成完美替代。除了气调保鲜，近年来食品行业也陆续开发出低温等离子杀菌、可食用涂膜、纳米氧化锌等新型保鲜技术，在丰富保鲜手段、提升保鲜效果和性价比的同时，进一步降低二氧化碳在保鲜领域的“出镜率”。图源：thedrinksbusiness.com值得注意的是，二氧化碳作为“安全、节能、环保”的天然制冷剂代表，在欧洲得到普遍应用。如今，二氧化碳制冷剂成为欧洲超市及便利店的主流选择，已有超过10000家门店安装使用二氧化碳制冷机组。而在中国，出于投资成本过高（设备性能要求和系统维护成本）的考虑，氨和氟利昂仍是应用最广的制冷剂。在可持续发展与企业经营效益之间的博弈中，全球对二氧化碳制冷剂的需求走势尚不明朗，这在一定程度上也使得短期内对二氧化碳制冷剂的需求总量难以发生大的改变。然而，与其让大量的氯氟烃制冷剂对全球气候造成严重影响，倒不如让二氧化碳安静地“躲”在制冷管道里，为人类的可持续目标“循环持续”地贡献力量。
