Most people, when asked what comes to mind when you mention dry ice, would say a cocktail they recently drank or a Halloween decoration. But beyond the theatrical, dry ice does much more than keep your drinks cold or give off a spooky ambience, it is used in many different applications from food storage to medical devices to transportation purposes.
A solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2), dry ice is an incredibly dynamic material and demand for it has been growing significantly in recent years. Physically unique in that it sublimates from a solid to a gas, while providing refrigeration value, its growth has primarily been associated with its increased usage in food processing plants.
For the developing markets, where food processing plants of a significant size are less common, there is much less usage of the commodity and the product is then applied in the shipping of perishable products and uses for portable refrigeration.
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