Dry Ice Blasting Services in Houston & Along the Gulf Coast
Polar Clean provides highly effective, environmentally safe and water-free dry ice blasting and other abrasive cleaning services for the most challenging industries and manufacturers across Texas and the Gulf Coast from our Houston facilities.
Who We Serve
We have provided dry ice blasting and other services to the petrochemical and refinery industry along the Gulf Coast for more than 20 years. Facility managers, turnaround managers and restoration professionals in the Gulf Coast rely on Polar Clean for safe, aggressive and mess-free cleaning needed for preventive maintenance, shutdowns, emergencies, and restoration – without the risks and containment challenges of hydroblasting and other cleaning methods.
All Polar Clean employees have passed DISA background screening.
Industries served:
The Right Team with the Right Solutions for Power Plants and Petrochemical Facilities
Polar Clean Senior Director of Operations Sean Simpson, who recently relocated to our Houston division, talks about our busy and expanding Gulf Coast operations, where Polar Clean has a large concentration of clients in the petrochemical and power generation industries whose cleaning challenges include a variety of difficult to clean adherents and the need for minimal periods of downtime.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges facing your Gulf Coast petrochemical and power generation clients?
I think finding responsive and capable vendors is a big concern. Petrochemical and power plant cleaning is a highly specialized process and there is a lot of risk when you begin introducing water or other debris into sensitive settings. On top of that, these facility managers are under a lot of pressure to minimize downtime. They need a cleaning partner who can work quickly and meet deadlines while mitigating risk.
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Q: Is there a lot of hand cleaning still going on in petrochemical and power generation facilities?
Yes, especially in power generation facilities where gas turbines are often cleaned by hand because it’s a quick or unexpected outage and they don’t always have dry ice blasting in the budget.
Q: What is the most stubborn adherent that must be removed from petrochemical and power plant facilities and equipment?
There are a lot of tough adherents in these environments, but I can try to pick one in each. For petrochemical plants it’s sulfur that builds up in HRSGs. For power plants, coal slag is one of the toughest forms of buildup to remove.
Q: What are the most common misconceptions around dry ice blasting?
Some facilities managers who have had bad experiences with unreliable cleaning companies worry that it won’t work, or that it’s unsafe to do inside confined spaces. Others mistakenly believe that they can achieve the same results with water or abrasive cleaning. When they see the results of dry ice (CO2) blasting from a company like ours for the first time, it’s not an exaggeration to say they are blown away.
Q: Other than dry ice blasting, are there other trades that Polar Clean performs?
Yes, we also provide a variety of abrasive blasting methods for the most stubborn adherents, as well as sponge blasting, hydro blasting and vacuum services.
Q: What are some of your biggest goals with the Gulf Coast operations moving forward?
We are looking to continue our expansion of services along the Gulf Coast and eventually be able to provide more nested services, where we are staffed and equipped within minutes of your sites and better able to offer customized support that includes our full range of services including hydro blasting and vacuuming, rapidly and without delays.
Q: What are Polar Clean’s most significant differentiators when it comes to petrochemical and power generation applications?
Our experience is the key differentiator. In addition to our deep knowledge of dry ice pneumatics and applications, knowing your way around a petrochemical or power generation facility and understanding their processes for shut down / turnaround cleaning and emergency maintenance is absolutely critical. In short, we’ve ‘been there and done that’ safely, effectively, and efficiently before.
Q: What are you most looking forward to as a newly minted Texan? Barbecue? Big hats? No more Indiana winters?
Well, I do love four-season weather, but Texas is a fun change of pace for my family. We are excited about all the new experiences we will get to enjoy along the Gulf Coast, like barbecue and Cajun culture. As senior director of operations at Polar Clean, I am also excited about our ability to better serve our clients in the power gen and petrochem industries.
Q. What are 3 things you would like Gulf Coast petrochemical and power generation facility managers to know about Polar Clean?
One, we’re here and still Polar Blasting! (Polar Blast, which Polar Clean acquired in 2018, has been providing services to Gulf Coast petrochemical and power generation clients from the Texas location since 1994.) Two, we’ve been doing this for a long time. Three, we can handle your problems. We provide extremely reliable and effective solutions.
Why Dry Ice Blasting?
Dry ice blasting is a water-free, chemical-free solution that uses frozen CO2 pellets that sublimate on contact, leaving behind no collateral debris while effectively blasting away dust, grime and other adherents without the risk of damage that abrasive blasting can pose. Using an adjustable nozzle, dry ice blasting can be calibrated down to a light dusting for effective cleaning of equipment as delicate as an electrical panel.
Benefits for petrochemical and power generation facilities include improved efficiency and heat transfer.
Applications:
- Asphalt removal
- Catalyst screens
- Boiler furnaces
- CCR platformers
- Coating removal
- Compressor housings
- Compressors
- Conveyors
- Cosmetic cleaning
- Descaling equipment
- Dryers
- Electric motors
- Electrical equipment
- Furnace tubes
- Gas cycle compressors
- General spills
- Generator windings
- Glycol reactors
- HRSG tubes
- Heat exchangers*
- Johnson screens
- Loose paint removal
- Tanks
- Motor windings
- Pipe cleaning
- Polyethylene reactors
- Production and storage vessels
- Pumps
- Reformers
- Regenerators
- Refinery tanks
- Rotating equipment
- Rust removal
- SCR units
- Styrene reactors
- Sulfur deposit removal
- Switch gears
- Transformers
- Tube ID cleaning
- Turbines
- Weld seams
* Polar Clean uses specialized lancing nozzles that feed in up to 50 feet and then are pulled back to blast out blockages with dry ice
Abrasive, Hydroblasting & Vacuuming Services
Polar Clean also provides a full range of more abrasive options when they are a better fit along with industrial vacuuming.
Abrasive Blasting
Abrasive Blasting
With abrasive force that ranges from food-safe baking soda (2.5 Mohs), walnut shells and corn cobs (Mohs 2-4.5) to crushed glass (Mohs 3-3.5 dry and 4-6 wet) and garnet (Mohs 8), abrasive blasting is sometimes more effective for stubborn adherents.
Aluminum Oxide
Aluminum Oxide
Often specified for removing stubborn mineral deposits on steam turbines, this finely graded abrasive is also effective for paint preparation because of its ability to leave a surface etched for superior adhesion. (Mohs 9)
Sponge Blasting
Sponge Blasting
Sponge blasting can be a useful option in place of, or in combination with dry ice blasting for applications that require a dry, slightly more abrasive cleaning force. Using environmentally safe and re-usable sponge particles that can be loaded with a variety of different media, sponge blasting provides effective dust control while cleaning with micro-abrasive pressure.
Industrial Vacuuming
Industrial Vacuuming
Industrial vacuuming with large-capacity equipment can remove dust, debris, sludge and other debris from your equipment.
Hydroblasting
Hydroblasting
As a subsidiary of Premium Plant Services, a Hibbing, Minnesota-based market leader in a variety of industrial service applications, including hydroblasting, Polar Clean provides hydroblasting services where needed, sometimes in combination with dry ice blasting. Hydroblasting’s ability to push through piping that can include 90° turns makes it a useful complement for some applications.
Get Started
Contact us for a cleaning assessment. We will determine the right cleaning method and process for your facility, and may follow up with a site visit. We will estimate project scope, timing and pricing structure and then mobilize our team, review our plan with your point person, perform the cleaning, and document the entire process. Process improvements are identified after every job to ensure better and faster results for future work.
Learn More about the Benefits of Dry Ice Blasting in the Petrochemical and Power Generation Industries
A Few Polar Clean Customers
