---
title: "Dry-ice blasting (CO₂)"
description: "Dry-ice blasting projects solid CO₂ pellets at supersonic velocity onto a surface. The pellets impact, sublimate from solid to gas on contact (absorbing local heat and producing thermal shock), and lift the deposit off the surface. The only secondary waste is the dislodged material itself — the dry ice converts entirely to CO₂ gas."
canonical_url: "https://sylio.co/glossary/dry-ice-blasting"
last_updated: "2026-06-28T02:29:23.380Z"
---

**Dry-ice blasting** projects solid CO₂ pellets at supersonic velocity onto a surface. The pellets impact, sublimate from solid to gas on contact (absorbing local heat and producing thermal shock), and lift the deposit off the surface. The only secondary waste is the dislodged material itself — the dry ice converts entirely to CO₂ gas.

## Industrial uses

- Offline cleaning of boiler internals during major outages
- Cement-plant cooler internals
- Heat-exchanger external cleaning
- General industrial surface cleaning where wet cleaning is undesirable

## Position vs sonic horns

Dry-ice blasting is an **offline** technology — the boiler must be shut down and cooled, operators must access the cleaning area, and the cleaning happens during a planned outage window. [Sonic horns](/glossary/sonic-horn) are **online** technology that cleans during operation. The two technologies serve different points in the maintenance cycle and do not directly compete.

## Related terms

- [Hydroblasting (offline)](/glossary/hydroblasting-offline)
- [Manual lancing](/glossary/manual-lancing)