Dry Ice Blasting Environmental Facts

At ICEsonic, we take environmental issues seriously. We will continue to enhance our business operations, thereby adding value to future generations with effort from every team member towards achieving the company’s goal.

Dry Ice is completely environmentally friendly

In addition to being clean and safe, it is also important to remember that dry ice is obtained as a by-product of other industrial processes – i.e. it is made from reclaimed CO2. It does not produce CO2 or add CO2 to the atmosphere and therefore does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Dry ice blasting is truly, and completely, environmentally friendly! Dry ice is an approved medium by the EPA, USDA & FDA, and is non-toxic, non-hazardous and inhibits mold & bacteria growth. Dry ice blasting has been effectively used in EPA, USDA, FDA, AIB and GFSI inspected/certified facilities. It is safe to use on food processing equipment, CO2 does not release harmful gases into the atmosphere also does not generate secondary waste. Also, CO2 is a natural element of the earth, comprising about 0.03% of our atmosphere. All humans and animals give off CO2 which is used by plants to help them grow. The CO2 industry and its users have a very minimal role in adding to the greenhouse effect and as legislation continues with stricter air and water regulations, dry ice blasting will step forward to replace harmful detergent and solvent pollution and their disposal problems. Dry ice blasting reduces or eliminates employee exposure to (and corporate liability from) the use of dangerous chemical cleaning agents.

Minimizing Hazardous Waste

The cost of hazardous waste removal can be monumental, and the typical cleaning methods magnify the problem many times over because the cleaning materials — water, solvents, sand etc. — become secondary contamination once coming in contact with the primary contaminant. They must be treated as hazardous waste as well. Since CO2sublimates upon contact with the target surface, no secondary waste accumulates. This can amount to truly tons of savings. The volume of hazardous waste is reduced to minimal amounts, and the return on investment from converting over to dry ice blasting can be attained very, very quickly.

Report: Department of Energy

Supporting this, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management produced a report regarding the Los Alomos National Laboratory. The report presented the case that the facility could achieve a 640% return on investment by converting over to a CO2 blasting system saving over $13,000,000 over the course of a ten year life cycle. Today, the dry ice method of cleaning is quickly becoming favoured for environmental as well as production reasons. Because of tremendous environmental regulations, industry has need to minimize wastes. Further, there is a growing consciousness that many are placing now on the global environmental impact of their production practices. However, these benefits are accentuated due to the tremendous performance gains through dry ice blasting — little or no production downtime, quality of clean and minimized damaged to equipment.