CREATE CLEAN
NET-ZERO CARBON:
THE MOST SUSTAINABLE CLEANING
METHOD FOR F&B INDUSTRY?
Dry ice blasting is the most
sustainable cleaning method
available to the food and beverage
industry ever, believes Matthew
Prestidge, industrial hygiene advisor
for Presco Environmental.
“It always amazes me how we can
completely sanitise a surface to meet
food production standards, yet use
no chemicals at all,” he says.
Presco Environmental, a familyowned
business based in Taranaki
that provides industrial cleaning
services to the New Zealand food
and beverage industry, is now
offering this innovative cleaning
technology which not only helps food
production factories in their visions
towards a more sustainable future,
but is a solution in places that were
previously very difficult to clean.
Dry ice blasting is exactly as the
name says; cleaning by blasting dry
ice. Small rice-sized pellets of dry
ice (frozen CO2) are blasted with
compressed air at the dirty surface.
The extremely low temperatures of
the dry ice (-78C˚) kills any bacteria
and freezes the soil, which becomes
brittle and flakes off. The pellets
sublimate on impact, leaving only
the dislodged soil to sweep up off
the floor. Being non-abrasive, dry ice
leaves the surface underneath the
soil in perfect condition.
Dry ice blasting is a ‘net-zero’ carbon
footprint cleaning methodology-
recycling the world’s number 1 waste
product (CO2).
Aside from sustainability, dry ice
blasting comes with a slew of other
benefits, says Matthew.
“CO2 is a non-conductive gas
so is perfect for electrical plants;
it can clean around wiring and
sensors while they are still live. No
water means it’s perfect for dry
environments like powder plants as
production can resume immediately
after the job. No time is wasted
waiting for the plant to cool down,
dismantling and reassembling or
waiting for it to dry out.”
Dry ice blasting is used widely
overseas but is relatively new to
the Kiwi market. It is a popular
cleaning method in the automotive
and restoration industries. Seeing
its sanitation properties, Presco
Environmental is excited to bring the
technology to the food processing
industry.
Matthew says in the three years
Presco Environmental has been
providing the service, the company
is seeing more and more plants
are looking to dry ice blasting as a
sustainable cleaning solution to a
difficult cleaning problem.
“It’s so satisfying to see the amazed
look on a customer’s face when
they see what dry ice blasting can
do. We recently did a job at a big
baking company for the second
year in a row; cleaning baked
on carbon build-up out of their
huge industrial ovens and off their
conveyors. Previously they had had
to shut down for a couple of days
while cleaners wiped over all the
Before and after: baked-on carbon deposits removal from oven conveyor chain
34 NOVEMBER 2019