Protect your product’s appearance, texture and taste with CO2 snow and dry ice cooling solutions from Linde
CO2 Snow for Temperature Control
Cooling Power Exactly When and Where You Need It
Explore the flexibility and rapid cooling power of carbon dioxide snow (CO2 snow) and dry ice for precise chilling on demand - tailored to your operational needs
What Is CO2 Snow and What Is Dry Ice?
Depending on the temperature and pressure, carbon dioxide (CO2) exists in three states - as a gas, a liquid or a solid. When the temperature and pressure of liquid CO2 is reduced (for example, by releasing it through a nozzle), it partly flashes into the gas phase and the remaining CO2 freezes into tiny solid particles. At atmospheric pressure and -79°C (-109°F), liquid carbon dioxide (LIC) thus converts into solid carbon dioxide snow. This snow can then be compressed under high pressure to form blocks, pellets or slices. Essentially, dry ice is compressed solid CO2 snow.
CO2 snow and dry ice have no taste or smell, are non-poisonous and are non-flammable - making them a highly effective, easy-to-use cooling agent for food in mixers, blenders, containers, cartons and combo bins.
Depending on the format (pellets, slices or blocks) and insulation method, dry ice slowly sublimates over minutes, hours or even days to keep food and storage spaces cold. This makes it particularly convenient for the refrigeration of temperature-sensitive foodstuffs during transportation, when power supply can be an issue. On contact with food, CO2 snow sublimates rapidly to quickly remove heat from the food by reducing the surface temperature. It can be applied at any point in the production line in both batch and inline operations. These economical, precise solid CO2 cooling methods have the added bonus of avoiding the mess of water ice.
CO2 Snow Production and Dispensing Systems Tailored to Your Needs
CO2 snow is most effective in conjunction with custom-designed snow horns or nozzles. We offer a range of dedicated expansion nozzles specially engineered for efficient snow generation, accurate temperature control and precise dosing. We have also developed a variety of high- and low-velocity snow horns supporting manual, portable and permanent applications. These injector devices can deposit the cryogen directly on your food for mixing or layering, and rapidly chill your product during transfer for further processing or shipping.
All of our dispensing solutions are available in a wide range of sizes and types, so there is a snow delivery system that matches your individual chilling requirements. If you require larger quantities of dry ice, our pelletizer systems can produce it on site for you.
Benefits of Linde's CO2 Snow Horns
Our snow horns are designed to give you a simple, cost-effective method to accurately control temperature conditions in your chilling operations. Highlights include
- High refrigeration and chilling capacity in a small package
- Precise temperature control when combined with our chilling control panel
- High and low velocity designs for different production and batch sizes
- Ability to shoot ribbon or stream of snow from any orientation
- Simple to install at low capital cost, coupled with ease of use
- Ease of adaptability to most mixing and blending equipment
- Support for everything from manual applications to fully automatic systems
- Ease of maintenance and cleaning
Chilling Applications of CO2 Snow
Snow is suited to a wide application range across inline and batch processing lines. Here are just some examples:
- Snow injection in meat and dough mixers
- Tray pack packaging
- Spot cooling of prepared foods
- Layering or filling of bulk bins and boxes for transport
- Boosting of existing refrigeration systems