An ice cream cart

The most common use of dry ice is to preserve food,[1] using non-cyclic refrigeration.

It is frequently used to package items that need to remain cold or frozen, such as ice cream or biological samples, without the use of mechanical cooling, and medical supplies.

Dry ice can be used to flash freeze food[16] or laboratory biological samples,[17] carbonate beverages,[16] and make ice cream.[18]

Dry ice can be used to arrest and prevent insect activity in closed containers of grains and grain products, as it displaces oxygen, but does not alter the taste or quality of such foods. For the same reason, it can prevent or retard food oils and fats from becoming rancid.

 

 

Sublimation

When dry ice is placed in water sublimation is accelerated, and low-sinking, dense clouds of smoke-like fog are created. This is used in fog machines, at theaters, haunted house attractions, and nightclubs for dramatic effects. Unlike most artificial fog machines, in which fog rises like smoke, fog from dry ice hovers above the ground.[15] Dry ice is useful in theater productions that require dense fog effects.[19]

It is occasionally used to freeze and remove warts.[20] However, liquid nitrogen performs better in this role, since it is colder so requires less time to act and less pressure.[21] However, dry ice has the advantage of having fewer problems with storage, since it can be generated from compressed carbon dioxide gas as needed.[21]

Plumbers use equipment that forces pressurised liquid CO2 into a jacket around a pipe; the dry ice formed causes the water to freeze, forming an ice plug, allowing them to perform repairs without turning off the water mains. This technique can be used on pipes up to 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter.[22]

Dry ice can be used as bait to trap mosquitoes, bedbugs, and other insects, due to their attraction to carbon dioxide.[23]