The CO2 (Dry Ice) Blasting Process

Dry ice blast cleaning is also known as CO2 cleaning or cryogenic cleaning. Dryblast uses dry ice pellets for environmentally friendly industrial & commercial cleaning.

Dryblast uses compressed air to spray dry ice pellets at 80 PSI/100 scfm onto the surface to be cleaned. Pellets are frozen food-grade carbon dioxide (CO2) at -10 degrees fahrenheit. The pellets are inexpensive, easy to store and are approved for the cleaning of any operation, including food preparation, by the EPA, the FDA and the USDA. The only byproduct is carbon dioxide, an inert naturally occurring gas.

How Does CO2 Blasting Clean? 

CO2 blasting works because of three primary factors: pellet kinetic energy, thermal shock effect and thermal-kinetic effect.

Thermal Differentials 

When the pellet contacts the surface, it absorbs the heat of the surface material. That causes the pellet to change its state from ice to gas. When many pellets, all frozen at -10 degrees fahrenheit contact the surface, maximum heat is transferred. The cooling contracts the surface evenly. The surface grime is cooled and it contracts also, but at a different rate, causing microscopic cracks between the grime and the equipment surface.

Kinetic Energy 

Pellets are projected at extremely high velocity. Dryblast uses advanced nozzles on its equipment that deliver the pellets at the highest velocities in the blasting industry.

The relatively soft CO2 pellet changes state from a solid to a gas upon impact, so there is no damage to the blasted surface, but the kinetic energy (the energy produced by motion), is transferred to the grime on the surface, effectively shaking it loose.

Combined with the cracks created by the thermal energy, the kinetic energy breaks the grime free.

Gaseous Expansion 

When the pellet changes to a gas, the gas expands to nearly 800 times the volume of the pellet in a few milliseconds. This happens at the same point where the thermal energy cracks the grime from the surface and the kinetic energy is transferred, shaking the grime free. The expansion creates a micro-blast. Because the pellet is now a gas, it doesn't rebound from the surface. The expansion creates a high pressure shockwave, or wind, that runs along the surface, lifting the cracked and shaken grime and blowing the particles away from the surface to fall harmlessly to the floor.

Dryblast uses equipment that allows adjustment of the velocity of the pellets and the density of the pellets impacting the surface, so the kinetic energy can be increased and the thermal and gaseous energy can be controlled. You get the maximum cleaning capability with no damage to the cleaned surface.