Vaccine logistics: New solutions for dry ice production

ASCO CARBON DIOXIDE LTD is expanding its product portfolio with customizable dry ice filling and transfer systems for on-site production centers. Especially when shipping the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, an unbroken cold chain down to -80°Celsius and effective work processes are crucial.

„We were able to respond in a short time to numerous inquiries seeking a solution for filling dry ice into shipping boxes or transferring large dry ice containers into shipping boxes,“ says Marco Pellegrino, Managing Director of ASCO CARBON DIOXIDE LTD. The company is expanding its dry ice technology portfolio with two dosing units that are used particularly in the pharmaceutical, logistics and food industries.

The new dry ice filling system (dosing system) is compatible with all ASCO pelletizers and, in its standard version, consists of two dry ice production lines with dry ice dosing units and a conveyor system depending on capacity requirements. This enables automated pre-filling of (shipping) boxes with freshly produced dry ice. Subsequently, vaccine doses, for example, are placed in the box and after that automatically filled with dry ice again. Finally, the box only needs to be sealed for shipping.

The ASCO dry ice refilling system is particularly suitable for the pharmaceutical, logistics and food industries when the dry ice is already purchased ready-made. With the new solution, the dry ice delivered in containers from the supplier, can be transferred to the dosing unit by a lifting process. From there, weight-based dosing of the dry ice through predefined recipes enables automatic filling into customer boxes. This makes it possible to use the dry ice as quickly as possible with a minimum of man power.

Since maintaining the cold chain is of crucial importance, especially in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, ASCO CARBON DIOXIDE LTD has been concentrating intensively on the provision of the two dry ice filling systems in recent weeks. The challenges of shipping COVID-19 vaccines, producing a large quantity of dry ice in a short time and dosing it into shipping boxes, reinforced the company’s efforts in this regard.