What builds up, and why it matters
On this kind of work the problem is oil, carbon, scale and hydrocarbon residue on generation and process equipment. Energy equipment is large, awkward to access and costly to take out of service, so cleaning in place during an outage is worth far more than a faster method that requires teardown.
Work is planned around outages and turnaround schedules. The people who call us about power plant are usually operations and maintenance planners, and the thing they are actually worried about is extending an outage that was already tightly planned.
The method
Why dry ice and not the alternatives
- Non-abrasive
Tolerances stay where they were. Nothing hard hits the part, so a mold face or a bearing seat is not worn by the cleaning.
- Low moisture
Because no water goes on, none has to be drained, wiped or blown out of the equipment afterward.
- No secondary waste
Abrasive media has to be contained, swept and thrown away. With dry ice there is nothing to recover except what came off your equipment.
- Often no teardown
Cleaning in place cuts the downtime. A machine that stays assembled is back in service sooner than one that had to be stripped and rebuilt.
More energy work
Related jobs we get called for
Questions we get asked first
Will it damage the surface underneath?
Not on the vast majority of surfaces. The cleaning comes from the cold breaking the bond, with nothing scraping at the part. Soft or older finishes get a test spot before we commit.
Do you have to take the equipment apart for power plant?
Rarely all the way. Dry ice does its work on whatever the nozzle can see, so we plan around access, open what has to be opened and leave the rest assembled.
How much mess does it make?
Your floor stays dry and the corners stay free of grit. What does come off is collected by us before we pack up the rig.
Do you come to us?
Every job is on site. Your car can stay in your garage and your boat at the dock while we work. We cover South Florida, from Miami out to about a hundred miles.
What does a job cost?
The figure is tied to the work itself, so we price it once we know what it is. Keep in mind the bigger saving is often the teardown you no longer pay for. Tell us about the job and we will put a real number on it.
How soon can you look at it?
Send a description today, photos if you have them. An owner looks at it and comes back to you, and if your timeline is tight we will say whether it is doable before you plan around us.
The comparison
Why not just pressure wash it
- Solvent and degreaser
It loosens the mess and leaves its own behind, along with fumes and something to dispose of.
- Hand scraping
It is the fallback when nothing else is available, and it shows on the surface afterward.
- Media blasting
It works by removing material, which is the problem. Acceptable on heavy steel, damaging on soft alloy, plating or a machined surface.
- Pressure washing
It is fast and it is wet, which is fine outdoors and unusable on anything with a winding in it.
- Dry ice
It is the only one on this list where the media stops existing the moment it has worked.
What comes off
What comes off, and why
Most of what we remove falls into a handful of families. Each one is bonded a little differently, which is why the notes below say why the cold breaks it loose.
- Ink and printing residue
Dried ink on precision roller faces, cleaned without altering the cell structure that does the work.
- Food residue
Carbonized product build-up in a plant where neither standing water nor a chemical film is acceptable.
- Grease and oil
The greasy base coat that traps grit and dust. It releases early and takes the loose material with it.
- Carbon and soot
Smoke and soot residue on equipment that runs at temperature. The cold contracts the deposit and it lifts off without scratching what is underneath.
- Adhesive and sealant
Whatever the last repair left stuck to the mating face: gasket, sealant, deadener or adhesive.
- Resin and mold release
The tacky, then hardened, layer that collects on molds. Cold makes it brittle enough to lift off, and the tool surface is untouched.
- Paint and coatings
Taken off in a controlled way when what is underneath matters more than speed.
How a job runs
Nothing about this should be a surprise
Nobody should have to guess what they booked. This is every stage of a job in the order it happens.
- You describe the job
Describe the equipment and the mess. If it cannot come offline that changes the plan, so say so early.
- We look at access and containment
Access drives the plan: reach, siting, masking, and the route the removed material takes off the job. It is the part customers think about least and we think about most.
- We test a small area
A factory finish, a repaint and bare steel can all sit on the same piece of equipment. Each one gets checked in a hidden spot first, because a setting that is safe on one can mark the next.
- We blast, then clean up
There is no spent media to recover, only the deposit, which we collect before packing up.
- You look before we pack up
We would rather you find the missed spot while we are standing there than a week later. Another pass on the day is the cheapest fix available.
What to expect on site
Everything the rig needs arrives with it. No tap, no drain, no outlet.
Masking happens first. Whatever is adjacent and vulnerable gets covered before the hose is picked up.
Solid carbon dioxide leaves no residue at all. What it does do is displace air, so an enclosed space gets ventilated as part of the job rather than as a precaution added later.
This is not a quiet method. Ear defenders are standard issue on site for anyone nearby.
Send us the job.
There is no sales pitch on the other end. Two firefighters own this business, and one of us will call you to talk through the job.