During the dry ice cleaning process, the dry ice is blasted against a surface of an item of equipment to remove the contaminant (rust, dirt, debris)

As the dry ice strikes the surface it instantaneously converts to a gas and thus returns to the atmosphere as a carbon dioxide (CO2).

CO2 is a trace gas which is naturally occurring element in the earths atmosphere. It is odourless at normally encountered concentrations and constitutes less than 1% of our atmosphere. As the gas returns to the atmosphere, dry ice cleaning is best conducted in a ventilated, relatively open space such as a factory workshop or outside.