Early man was not bothered to keep anything for later use. When he was hungry he either did hunting or plucked the available fruits from the tree. The art of preserving never occurred to him. But due to the civilization and population increase it became a necessity to safe keep things for future use. And with that arise the need for something that will keep the food and other perishables without getting soggy. The quest for an ideal agent, found out the benefits of “Dry Ice’.
Dry Ice is the commercial name of frozen carbon dioxide or widely known as Co ². Though available for quite a long time, the last three decades saw the use of Dry Ice in increasing proportions. Before knowing the uses of dry ice, it will be apt what makes dry ice an ideal preservation agent. It is mentioned earlier that dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. The gas requires a temperature of -109.3°F (-78.5°). Survival or any organism at that temperature is not possible. This makes dry ice beneficial in a number of industries.
One industry that uses dry ice to a large extent is the Food Industry. It is used as a preservative to keep the perishable items like fish and vegetables and to add fizz to the beverages. The ability of dry ice when added to any juice or for that matter water to make it a fizzling drink made it popular with the beverages industry. For example you can make a bubbly drink in the home by just adding some dry ice to the fresh orange juice. Fruits preserved with dry ice, thaw firm and do not become soggy. This made it convenient to preserve and send them to far off places to fetch a better price.
In the entertainment industry dry ice is used to create an atmosphere of fog which is required such as a haunted house. Similarly in the discotheque, dance clubs and the theatres dry ice is placed in water where in it evaporate without going to the liquid state forming dense clouds. Instead of going up they will keep low to the ground which makes it popular in parties and dance halls to create an ideal atmosphere.
In the medical field Doctors use dry ice to free warts to make them rigid so that they are removed easily with less bleeding. In the laboratories dry ice is used to freeze specimens to preserve them and to examine them later. In the veterinary field dry ice is used to preserve the semen and transport them in dry ice filled canisters to use them later in artificial insemination centres.
The property of dry ice to freeze water quickly is made use by the plumbers to freeze the water into a chunk of ice that fills the pipe in a given area so that they can go on with their repair without closing the water supply.
When the tanks carry inflammable gases to be de-gassed dry is the best choice. When the dry ice is sublimed in such a tank the CO² gas rushes out taking along with it the inflammable gases. This makes it safe for the cleaning staff to work on such tanks.
Dry ice is also uses in large quantities in blast cleaning. Pellets of dry ice are shot out from a gun with compressed air. When they hit the surface to be cleaned, the sublimation process removes any residue like oil, paint, rubber and mold from the surfaces.