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Dry ice process is
food grade quality, environmentally friendly
By Bob Robinson
As in many manufacturing facilities, workers and visitors have to wear
hard hats, earplugs and plastic glasses. At Continental Carbonic,
workers also have to wear protective gloves when working with dry ice.
“If it just touches your skin, no problem,” said Gerald McGinnis, Group
Manager of Manufacturing. “More than a few seconds, you will get a
slight burn.”
Dry ice keeps its solid form at 109 degrees below zero (F). Any
increase in temperature results in it reverting to a gas, noticeable as
“vapor” when blocks of dry ice come off the conveyor belt. The “cloud”
is visible throughout the process of taking 240 lb. blocks through
various “cuts” to meet delivery requirements.
“They are automatically cut into four 60-lb blocks,” McGinnis said.
“Further cuts are based upon the requirements of the client.”
One job required taking the large blocks and cutting them to size with
a band saw. Dry ice is also converted into three “pebble” sizes to be
used for packing with a variety of food and other products.
“All of our containers are sanitized for food grade processing,”
McGinnis said.
McGinnis referred to the small “pebbles” as “high density” dry ice. He
grabbed a handful and held them briefly, tossing them in the air.
“Try it,” he said. They were surprisingly cool to the immediate touch,
but almost immediately after that were too cold to hold… making
“tossing” a priority if held more than a second or so.
Outside, Continental Carbonic personnel had earlier conducted a
demonstration of one of the uses of dry ice… dry ice blasting, used as
a cleaning medium. It will clean metal and wood surfaces without
damaging the surface. The product, and process, is also environmentally
friendly, they said.
Carbon Dioxide is delivered through a series of pipes from Andersons
Ethanol. Nothing is wasted as unused ingredients are recycled for other
uses.
McGinnis is from Tennessee but has been in Greenville on and off since
the project was started. He’ll stay until training has been completed
then will begin working with all facilities under his control again.
“We should be in full operation by August or September,” he said. He
added he was proud that the company is hiring locally… “Even many of
our managers are being hired locally.”
“We have about 50 employees so far… our goal is 80 to 100,”
adding that they eventually want to hire many of their drivers locally.
He said he was delighted how (Darke County) Jobs & Family Services
helped him through the hiring process.
“They really worked well with us… it was a smooth transition,” he said.
To read companion story, Continental Carbonic Grand Opening, click here
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