Praxair ships liquid CO2 in tanker rail cars to its plants. Blocks are loaded robotically into containers with capacities up to 5,000 pounds, then trucked to distributors. 109 degrees Fahrenheit, as opposed to the typical household freezer that is about 0 degrees. While summer is busier, year-round uses of dry ice are expanding. If you order a clambake dinner from a catalog for a friend, it will be delivered in dry ice.
Dry ice is used in commercial baking to control the temperature during the mixing process.
It also is crushed and added to sausage and other ground meats to ensure that the product remains cold during the grinding process. Industrial applications also are growing. It is used to shrink-fit metal parts and also as a cleaning agent. Dry ice pellets are blasted into dirty machines, replacing messy chemicals or water that can be problematic to flush away. The Burlington Township plant opened under Liquid Carbonic in 1969.