The UK government was similarly startled in late 2021 when it suddenly ran short of carbon dioxide and discovered that without CO2 the food industry is unable not merely to make sparkling drinks fizzy but also to preserve and store foods, as well as to stun pigs and chickens before slaughter. This could all be traced back to the sudden closure of two fertiliser plants in Cheshire and Teesside. The majority of Britain’s CO2 supplies came, it turned out, from these two sites whose primary purpose was to make something else altogether: ammonia. And since natural gas prices were high and since
...more
