Efficient use of compressed air for dry ice blasting

Dry ice blasting is a highly efficient and environmentally-friendly method for cleaning of contaminated surfaces. The method is widely used in many industries, such as automotive, machinery and food industry. Dry ice blasting is a technology that requires large amounts of compressed air which is among the most expensive forms of energy currently employed in industries. Compressed air (air of high pressure and volume) accelerates particles of dry ice during the blasting. Our paper presents a comprehensive overview of saving measures which can greatly help decrease energy intensity of the blasting.Technology of dry ice blasting comprises four key elements: a compressor (generator of compressed air), a blasting machine, transport of pellets, and a blasting nozzle. Our team successively analysed these four key aspects of the technology and designed relevant savings measures, which results in identification of minimum, theoretically attainable energy consumption. Experiments and operational tests proved that application of all available savings measures may decrease energy consumption by 87% compared to current industry standards.It is possible to evaluate current technologies for dry ice blasting in terms of performance of the blasting machine and its functional properties. So far, there has been no method for evaluation of energy parameters of the technology. This paper presents a novel quantity which helps quantify and evaluate energy consumption of dry ice blasting. Main benefit of the quantity called “specific energy consumption of dry ice blasting” is the fact that it allows to compare energy consumptions of various blasting systems. For the purposes of this paper, the novel quantity is especially used to quantify the impact of recommended savings measures.