Carbon dioxide Gas

Main applications

1. Industries Applications
2. Chemicals

• Carbon dioxide is used in chemistry for controlling reactor temperatures.
• CO2 is also employed to neutralize alkaline effluents.
• Carbon dioxide is used under supercritical conditions for purifying or dying polymer, animal or vegetal fibers.

• Pharmaceuticals

Carbon dioxide is used for inerting, chemical synthesis, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), acidification (pH) of wastewater or product transportation at low temperature (-78 °C or -108 °F).

• Food and Beverage
• CO2 is used in the food business in these main areas:
• Carbonation of fizzing beverages such as soft drinks, mineral water or beer,
• Packaging of foodstuffs, its inerting and bacteriostatic properties being used successfully in nitrogen mixtures (Modified Atmosphere Packaging or MAP), to increase the shelf life of many food products (§ ALIGAL™).
• As cryogenic fluid in chilling or freezing operations or as dry ice for temperature control during the distribution of foodstuffs.
• Cafein is removal from cafee using supercritical CO2.

Healthcare

1. CO2 produces close-to-physiologic atmospheres for the operation of artificial organs.
2. Carbon dioxide is used as a component in a mixture of oxygen or air as respiratory stimulant to promote deep breathing. It is also used for the surgical dilation by intra-abdominal insufflations.

Metals industry

• Carbon Dioxide is typically used for environment protection:
• CO2 is used for red fume suppression during scrap and carbon charging, for nitrogen pick-up reduction during EAF tapping and for bottom stirring.
• In the non ferrous metallurgy, carbon dioxide is used for fume suppression during ladle transfer of matte (Cu/Ni production) or bullion (Zn/Pb production).
• Small amount of liquid CO2 can be used in recycling of waters from Acid Mine Drainage (AMD).
• The well known CO2 lasers are feed with some special grades of carbon dioxide (§ LASAL™).

Laboratories & analysis

• Supercritical CO2 is the mobile phase in both chromatography and extraction applications.
• Pulp and paper
• Carbon dioxide enables to sharply tune the pH of recycled mechanical or chemical pulps after an alkaline bleaching.
• CO2 can be used in the Tall Oil neutralization and for increasing the performance of paper machines.
•  Electronics

1. Carbon dioxide is usually used in waste water treatment, as a cooling medium in environmental testing of electronic devices.
2. Carbon dioxide can be used to add conductivity to ultrapure water, for CO2 snow abrasive cleaning of parts or residues on wafers. CO2 can also be used as an environmentally friendly supercritical fluid for removing photoresist from wafers, thus avoid organic solvent use.

Environment

1. Injection of carbon dioxide allows to master the pH of liquid effluents. CO2 is an excellent alternative to sulfuric acid for pH balance control.

Other industries

• Carbon dioxide snow for fire extinguishers;
• pH control and regulation of waste waters, swimming pools,…
• Gas Properties
• Molecular weight  : 44.01 g/mol

Solid phase

• Latent heat of fusion (1,013 bar, at triple point) : 196.104 kJ/kg
• Solid density  : 1562 kg/m3

Liquid phase

• Liquid density (at -20 °C (or -4 °F) and 19.7 bar) : 1032 kg/m3
• Liquid/gas equivalent (1.013 bar and 15 °C (per kg of solid)) : 845 vol/vol
• Boiling point (Sublimation) : -78.5 °C
• Latent heat of vaporization (1.013 bar at boiling point) : 571.08 kJ/kg
• Vapor pressure (at 20 °C or 68 °F) : 58.5 bar

Critical point

• Critical temperature  : 31 °C
• Critical pressure  : 73.825 bar
• Critical density  : 464 kg/m3

Triple point

• Triple point temperature  : -56.6 °C
• Triple point pressure  : 5.185 bar

Gaseous phase

• Gas density (1.013 bar at sublimation point) : 2.814 kg/m3
• Gas density (1.013 bar and 15 °C (59 °F)) : 1.87 kg/m3
• Compressibility Factor (Z) (1.013 bar and 15 °C (59 °F)) : 0.9942
• Specific gravity (air = 1) (1.013 bar and 21 °C (70 °F)) : 1.521
• Specific volume (1.013 bar and 21 °C (70 °F)) : 0.547 m3/kg
• Heat capacity at constant pressure (Cp) (1.013 bar and 25 °C (77 °F)) : 0.037 kJ/(mol.K)
• Heat capacity at constant volume (Cv) (1.013 bar and 25 °C (77 °F)) : 0.028 kJ/(mol.K)
• Ratio of specific heats (Gamma:Cp/Cv) (1.013 bar and 25 °C (77 °F)) : 1.293759
• Viscosity (1.013 bar and 0 °C (32 °F)) : 0.0001372 Poise
•  Thermal conductivity (1.013 bar and 0 °C (32 °F)) : 14.65 mW/(m.K)