Carbon dioxide

Uses

Liquid and solid carbon dioxide are important refrigerants, especially in the food industry, where they are employed during the transportation and storage of ice cream and other frozen foods.

Related Topics:
Refrigerant - Food industry - Ice cream - Frozen food

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Carbon dioxide is used to produce carbonated soft drinks and soda water. Traditionally, the carbonation in beer and sparkling wine comes about through natural fermentation, but some manufacturers carbonate these beverages artificially.

Related Topics:
Carbonated - Soft drink - Soda water - Beer - Sparkling wine - Artificial

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The leavening agents used in baking produce carbon dioxide to cause dough to rise. Baker's yeast produces carbon dioxide by fermentation within the dough, while chemical leaveners such as baking powder and baking soda release carbon dioxide when heated or exposed to acids.

Related Topics:
Leavening agent - Baker's yeast - Baking powder - Baking soda - Acid

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Carbon dioxide is often used as an inexpensive, non-flammable pressurized gas. Life jackets often contain canisters of pressured carbon dioxide for quick inflation. Steel capsules are also sold as supplies of compressed gas for airguns, paintball markers, and for making seltzer. Rapid vaporization of liquid CO2 is used for blasting in coal mines.

Related Topics:
Life jacket - Airguns - Paintball - Seltzer - Coal mine

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Carbon dioxide extinguishes flames, and some fire extinguishers, especially those designed for electrical fires, contain liquid carbon dioxide under pressure. Carbon dioxide also finds use as an atmosphere for welding, although in the welding arc, it reacts to oxidize most metals. Use in the automotive industry is common despite significant evidence that welds made in carbon dioxide are brittler than those made in more inert atmospheres, and that such weld joints deteriorate over time due to the formation of carbonic acid. It is used as a welding gas primarily because it is much less expensive than more inert gases such as argon or helium.

Related Topics:
Fire extinguisher - Welding - Oxidize - Brittle - Argon - Helium

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Liquid carbon dioxide is a good solvent for many organic compounds, and is used to remove caffeine from coffee. It has begun to attract attention in the pharmaceutical and other chemical processing industries as a less toxic alternative to more traditional solvents such as organochlorides. (See green chemistry.)

Related Topics:
Solvent - Organic compounds - Caffeine - Coffee - Pharmaceutical - Organochloride - Green chemistry

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Plants require carbon dioxide to conduct photosynthesis, and greenhouses may enrich their atmospheres with additional CO2 to boost plant growth. It has been proposed that carbon dioxide from power generation be bubbled into ponds to grow algae that could then be converted into biodiesel fuel. High level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere effectively exterminate many pests. Greenhouses will raise the level of CO2 to 10,000 ppm (1%) for several hours to eliminate pests such as whitefly, spider mites, and others.

Related Topics:
Photosynthesis - Algae - Biodiesel

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In the theater, dry ice is used to produce fog as a special effect: when dry ice added to water, the evaporating mixture of CO2 and cold humid air condenses as a fog. See also fog machine.

Related Topics:
Theater - Fog - Special effect - Fog machine

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Dry ice is also used in cleaning: shooting tiny dry ice pellets at a surface cools the dirt and causes it to pop off.

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In medicine, up to 5% of carbon dioxide is added to pure oxygen used in medicine, for stimulation of breathing after apnea and to stabilize the O2/CO2 balance in blood.

Related Topics:
Oxygen - Apnea

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A common type of industrial gas laser, the carbon dioxide laser, uses carbon dioxide as a medium.

Related Topics:
Laser - Carbon dioxide laser

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Carbon dioxide is commonly injected into or adjacent to producing oil wells. It will act as both a pressurizing agent and when dissolved into the underground crude oil will significantly reduce its viscosity, enabling the oil to flow more rapidly through the earth to the removal well. In mature oil fields extensive pipe networks are used to carry the carbon dioxide to the injection points.

Related Topics:
Oil well - Crude oil

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