From byproduct to strategic input: The shift in how CO₂ is bought

Supply security, stable pricing, and a lower carbon footprint, without owning any equipment.

Ask a greenhouse grower or a beverage producer where their CO₂ comes from, and most will name a gas distribution company as the supplier. Few will name the ammonia plant, refinery or fermentation site that actually produced it. That isn't carelessness. For decades, CO₂ simply arrived: a cheap, reliable leftover from industries that produced it whether anyone wanted it or not.

That arrangement had a hidden condition. Buyers' supply depended on decisions made by companies that were never in the CO₂ business. How much a fertilizer plant produced, when a refinery shut for maintenance, whether an emitter sold its CO₂ or stored it underground: buyers had no say in any of it.

Today, several forces are making that dependence visible at once and show the vulnerability of the system. CO₂ is shifting from a commodity bought at the lowest price to an input that needs a supply strategy.

Skypark is the solution for CO₂ buyers.

CO₂ supply is tightening everywhere

Most CO₂ is a byproduct of the fossil industry, mainly ammonia and fertilizer plants and oil refineries that are often far away from CO₂ users. It often travels long distances by road and sea to reach them.

Three forces are now making that supply less reliable.

• CO₂ is being diverted underground. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects are permanently storing CO₂ that used to be sold on the open market. In Europe, projects like Porthos in Rotterdam and the Yara agreement with Norway’s Northern Lights will remove an estimated 1.1 million tonnes per year from merchant supply in The Netherlands alone.

• Energy price shocks hit CO₂ directly. When natural gas prices spike, fertilizer plants cut production, and the CO₂ they produce disappears from the market. We saw this in 2022, and again in 2026 after gas prices surged following the escalation of conflict in late February. And long distance transport costs are pushing the price per ton up.

• Regulation and customer pressure are rising. Carbon border adjustments are expanding, some governments are debating charges on fossil-derived CO₂ imports, and retailers are asking suppliers for Scope 3 emissions data. Fossil CO₂ is becoming a commercial liability as well as an environmental one.

The buyers hit hardest are the ones in regions with little or no domestic CO₂ production, which rely on imports arriving by ship. When supply breaks, they have no plan B and no leverage.

What a Skypark offers offtakers

A Skypark is a regional Direct Air Capture hub that produces CO₂ locally from ambient air, using renewable energy. Instead of each company sourcing CO₂ on its own, a Skypark aggregates demand across a region and produces centrally, close to the businesses that need it. (New to the concept? Read our introduction to Skypark and CO₂-as-a-Service.)

Offtakers buy the CO₂ the way they buy it today, on a long-term contract, delivered by local pipeline or by truck as liquid CO₂. Here is why customers sign up for Skyparks supply:

• No upfront CapEx: Fixed price per ton under a long-term, take-or-pay contract with inflation-indexed pricing. No equipment to buy, host, or operate.

• Supply security: A stable local supply, with no exposure to import disruptions or shortages.

• Predictable cost: Competitive with the market today, and fixed for the long term. Customers know what their CO₂ will cost years ahead, not just next quarter.

• Sustainable: Fossil-free, circular CO₂ that improves carbon footprint.

A sustainability story that can actually tell

For food and beverage brands, greenhouse growers, and packaging companies, this sustainability matters more every year. Customers and retailers want to know where ingredients and inputs come from. CO₂ is one of the few inputs most brands have never said anything about, let alone disclosing it actually is the postponed emission of an oil refinery or ammonia plant.

Today’s CO₂ is a one-way trip. It starts as fossil carbon, pulled from the ground as a byproduct of industry, then ends up in the atmosphere once the product is opened, eaten, or grown. Air-captured CO₂ closes the loop. The carbon comes from the air, does its job in the  greenhouse, bottle, or package, and returns to the air, with no new fossil carbon added along the way.

That is a claim that can be put in sustainability reporting, on packaging, and in front of  consumers.

Same CO₂, better supply

Each CO₂ molecule is identical. What changes is where it comes from and how reliable its supply is. Instead of a supply chain exposed to the next energy shock, offtakers get a local source, a contracted price, and a story worth telling.

Skyparks are being developed across multiple regions. CO₂ buyer looking for a more secure supply at stable prices, are invited to contact us.