Ice production at Martinez, California was not being recovered. This led to a significantly higher ratio of liquid to solid ice production. The solution was to install a recovery skid to reduce the ratio of liquid CO2 required for solid ice production.
The skid was refurbished from its original condition which avoided the capital cost of completely new equipment. During the refurbishment, the skid was also converted from using ammonia as a refrigerant to R449 which allowed the Martinez plant to be removed from the CALARP (California Accidental Release Prevention) program. The skid is capable of 50 TPD of recovered product with a reduction of 46% of CO2 vented to the atmosphere during recovery. CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activity. The estimated annual savings by recovering product is approximately $1 million.
