{"id":4313,"date":"2020-05-14T23:46:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T03:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/?p=4313"},"modified":"2020-05-14T23:49:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T03:49:25","slug":"how-reduced-co2-in-the-pandemic-is-impacting-the-food-and-beverage-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/2020\/05\/14\/how-reduced-co2-in-the-pandemic-is-impacting-the-food-and-beverage-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"How reduced CO2 in the pandemic is impacting the food and beverage industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Greg Williams<\/a>, Senior Energy Advisor<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The temperature is warming and this is the time of year when most Americans enjoy firing up their grills and drinking an ice cold soda. For now our big backyard barbecue parties are temporarily paused and our summer dining may be significantly changed as a result of COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to coronavirus cramping our respective lifestyles, an obscure effect of this virus is a dire shortage to our nation\u2019s ethanol supply.\u00a0 How? Because a key ingredient in gasoline is ethanol and people are now driving less so less fuel needs to be made.\u00a0 In fact, there has been a 50% decline in gasoline consumption this year as opposed to May 2019. According to both the <\/span>Energy Information Administration<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) <\/span><\/a>with less vehicle miles logged means a reduction in gasoline consumption and a proportional drop in ethanol usage. Ethanol production could drop by three billion gallons for the year or 20% according to RFA. Some manufacturers have switched to hand sanitizer production, as ethanol is the active ingredient, but this is only a small percentage of total ethanol manufacturing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A byproduct of ethanol production is commercial grade carbon dioxide (CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub>).\u00a0 Both ethanol and CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0are vital to the food and beverage industries. In fact, the situation has become so dire, it has prompted the <\/span>Compressed Gas Association<\/span><\/a> and a national coalition of several meat and beverage industries to write a<\/span> letter to Vice President Mike Pence<\/span><\/a> t<\/span>o raise awareness. In their letter, they state that COVID-19 has caused a severe drop in the production of CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0which is important in the production, packaging, preservation, refrigeration, and marketing of everyday staples such as beer and wine, canned goods, carbonated beverages, cheeses, processed meats, and other items which are sold in our grocery stores, consumed in our homes, and enjoyed across our state and nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>While we do not have much control over COVID-19, we certainly have control over making sure we do not experience a shortage in commercial grade CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0which could negatively affect our nation\u2019s food supply chain again.\u00a0 One thing we can do is to invest more in carbon sequestration and utilization (CCUS), which<\/span> is a process that captures CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0emissions. CCS can be introduced to capture emissions from the manufacturing process or power plants. CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0captured can be used as a raw material to make new products or permanently stored. Putting this byproduct to work can help generate revenue while helping carve a path to permanent carbon sequestration.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the <\/span>Maryland Energy Administration<\/span><\/a> hosted a two-day conference last November entitled, the <\/span>Future of Carbon Capture in Maryland<\/span><\/a> to explore options available to the state. The same technologies that can capture CO2<\/sub><\/span> from power plants and other manufacturing processes, can help secure CO2<\/sub><\/span> as a valuable feedstock and improve the resiliency of our global food system by providing an alternative source of CO2<\/sub><\/span>. Captured CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0can be recycled and cleaned for the meat and carbonated beverage industry. Carbon dioxide <\/span>is also<\/span> used in the manufacture of dry ice which is used not only to preserve food, but it has important uses in the medical industry. <\/span>\u00a0In addition to food and medicine, CO2<\/sub><\/span> is widely used in water purification treatment and a variety of industrial applications. CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0capture technology for the food and beverage industry is already in practice at one Maryland facility in Allegany County,\u00a0 <\/span>Warrior Run Power Plant<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, <\/span>Governor Larry Hogan unveiled details of bold and innovative legislation called the <\/span>Clean and Renewable Energy Standard or CARES<\/span><\/a> for short.\u00a0 A provision of that legislation embraced CCUS technology to assist with projects that find permanent solutions to CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0storage.\u00a0 When enacted, CARES will set Maryland on a path to 100% clean electricity by 2040.\u00a0 As Governor Hogan said, it is a cleaner, smarter, and cheaper plan that protects Maryland jobs and our environment.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So the next time you enjoy a steak dinner or drink a carbonated beverage, remember, it could not have been done without CO2<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0to <\/span>produce, package, preserve, refrigerate, and transport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Greg Williams, Senior Energy Advisor The temperature is warming and this is the time of year when most Americans enjoy firing up their grills and drinking an ice cold soda. For now our big backyard barbecue parties are temporarily paused and our summer dining may be significantly changed as  …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[42,25,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-main","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4313"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4321,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions\/4321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}