We have a CO2 shortage!

Well if anyone really wants to know:
Global fossil fuel combustion produces about 37,000 million tons of CO2 per year.
Global CO2 production is about 230 million tons per year. Most of that goes to urea fertilizer manufacture and enhanced oil recovery. Less than 30 million tons of CO2 per year to beverage industry. (More than 20 I guess, but hard to pin down immediately)
Putting CO2 to Use – Analysis - IEA
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About 10 million Prius have been manufactured in total. They may have, in total, avoided CO2 release from petroleum combustion an amount equal to a year or a few years of fizzy drinks. But these are different 'streams'. Some CO2 is produced by combustion, and other part by trapping from atmosphere. Those fractions do not jump right up either, but probably combustion is larger. Maybe in IEA full report.
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First post may indicate a CO2 shortage or price increase in that industry. If anyone sees a clear reason presented please let us know. I guess that that lower fertilizer production in Ukraine and Russia has boosted urea manufacture elsewhere, and they are outbidding the fizzies.

 

helium too

 

Actually helium prices have fallen this year, if I grabbed the correct chart

 

Or the place simply forgot to order more.

 

was just in the local papers, mri's might have a problem

helium-shortage-doctors-are-worried-running-element-threaten-mris-rcna52978

 

when will we learn not to put all of our helium in one basket

 

... all thanks to getting the gum'int out of the helium business, and turning it over to profit-making private business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_Privatization_Act_of_1996

 

I think it's the other way round. Commercial CO2 production is often a byproduct of fertiliser production where the fertiliser is produced using natural gas. The shortage of natural gas from Russia has reduced fertiliser production in Europe (not sure about the US), and that's led to less CO2 being produced.

Britain's facing a fairly severe shortage, for the second time in a couple of years. The biggest problem last time - and it probably will be this time - is for meat production. It's used in the "humane"ish slaughter of pigs and other animals. It led to pork shortages last time.

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In Australia, I think I remember hearing that most of our CO2 comes from a natural underground source. It's piped up and bottled somewhere in South Australia, I think. But if I remember rightly, Australia is the only place where this is the case.

 

Methane combustion is preferred source of CO2 for urea because of purity. There may be excess CO2 produced, casually or if the factory is not tuned right. But you need to read more chemical engineering ... and I'll end sentence right there.

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I taught pre-meds about anatomy by giving them freshly killed rats to dissect. Rats were killed in a metal drum into which CO2 was added, Suffocation is nowhere near humane.

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There are a large number of 'CO2 source fields' with some commercially used for petroleum extraction. There is a place in Sierra Nevada Mtns of California where the seep rate is quite high. Signs warn visitors to 'not', and especially not lie down. And read about Lake Nyos.

 

Mammoth Ski area, at Mammoth Lakes? I've skied many times past this fumarole that killed 3 ski patrollers in 2006:

MAMMOTH LAKES, MONO COUNTY / Ski resort reckoning with lethal geology / Volcanic vent's carbon dioxide gas likely cause of deaths

... and also past several of the pictured "Closed Area - CO2 Emission Area" signs alongside several ski runs, at depressions with many dead trees:


I have also cross-country skied at several places nearby, but not at the Horseshoe Lake area where a skier died of suspected CO2 exposure about 1998:

Mammoth Area's Beauty Masks Its Natural Dangers - Los Angeles Times

My spouse is connected to numerous ski patrollers from her earlier life. That patrol incident hit some of that community fairly hard.

 

That's the spot I had in mind.

At meetings where people like me gather (a scary thought in itself) I've suggested using CO2 seeps as 'natural laboratories' to study ecological effects of +CO2 spatial gradients. It has never caught on, perhaps for good reasons.

 

Indeed. I'd got my ideas from business publications.

Yes. The inverted commas were there for a reason. And the "ish".

Ah, right. In Australian media, they always bang on about how the Australian situation is unique. But that's parochialism for you. Last week there were the Ballon d'Or awards for the best soccer players. The BBC told me England's Lucy Bronze came second, but mentioned no-one else. ABC Australia told me Australia's Sam Kerr came third, but mentioned no-one else. Media can get very parochial.

Ah, yes, I've heard of Lake Nyos. That is a scary thing.

 

A sign in a ski field telling me not to fall over is not going to stop me falling over. Nothing is going to stop me falling over.

There should be a sign saying "hkmb - just don't come in".

As, perhaps, there should be in other places.

 

"I'd got my ideas from business publications."

I might overstate my case to say that reading stoichiometric chemical equations is like reading musical scores by people who can actually hear what is going on there. If business publications do not have employees who can 'hear' chemistry it's their loss. Perhaps not only theirs.

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PETA may not strongly object to how academia treats animals. Setting fires elsewhere? Anyway, it is disgraceful.

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The amount of carbon buried as limestone far exceeds that buried as fossil plant matter. From basic ecology. Both leak out to a small extent. A major effort has been made to liberate the latter. I dun know where I'm going with that..

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"hkmb - just don't come in".
I said about the same thing in Munchkinland

 

Indeed you did. There's an angry man on another thread who's said much the same because I think typing addresses into a satnav while driving at 70mph is a bad idea. I am horrible.

 

As best I can tell, the primary hazard areas at Mammoth (apart from that roped-off fumarole, where hot gas melts all the way through the snow) are depressions or hollows alongside groomed runs, not the groomed runs themselves. Most downhill skiers don't like to climb uphill, so the grooming doesn't go down through the depressions, but skirts the perimeters, following a monotonic downhill slope. That slope also encourages any CO2 accumulation to drain away.

So I don't see any issue with falling on the groomed portion, unless you have a very pointy hard head and tend to hit hard enough to punch through the packed base. But don't be a powderhound by riding off-piste near those depressions into the nice fresh unpacked powder where a buried headplant, or falling into even a shallow tree well, is quite possible. Don't go through the depressions to dance in some virgin powder on the way in, where even without falling, it is necessary to climb out.

And most certainly, don't go practice your winter survival skills by building a snow cave in these areas.

 

Making ammonia from methane results in extra CO2. A lot of that goes to the food industry, with most of the fizzy water going to sooth cattle in feed lots bellies.
If you want urea, the ammonia and CO2 are reintroduced under heat. On paper, the reaction is balanced; no extra CO2, nor CO2 needed to be added.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_reforming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea#Production

 

Ammonia layman.

So I shall defer to the experts.