A lot of people do not see beyond dry ice’s cool characteristics, you know, how it creates clouds of vapor when you put it in a glass of water or how, from a solid state, it becomes gaseous without going through a liquid phase. But really, what is dry ice and what uses does it have beyond the ice cream truck? Dry ice is basically carbon dioxide, the same stuff you breathe out. Carbon dioxide is pressurized and refrigerated until it becomes a liquid, after which some of the pressure is release, letting some of the liquid to vaporize and, in turn, lowering the temperature of the remaining liquid even further, resulting in snow like formations of dry ice, which is them packed into the cubes and other various shapes of dry ice for its many uses.

Because the process is so easy, and because dry ice is easier to make, store and transport than, say, liquid nitrogen, it is a more common cooling agent used in a lot let of industrial and commercial processes. The process of making dry ice is even easy enough to do in small plants or personal labs, so you will have an easier time getting a hold of dry ice than other, more reactive coolants. So the next time that you see dry ice, be glad to know how it is made and how useful it is, from food preservation, low temperature transportation, even in plumbing projects. All this from such a cool thing too.