Australia's Science Forum

Do any of you who work on the NSW North Coast know where we can now buy dry ice. Apparently BOC no longer have it available and couldn't say where we may now get it. Thank you for any ideas!

You could try your local vet. They use it for storing frozen bull sperm for artificial insemination.
J

Hi Robyn
The only place i can see to source this from is in Brisbane or the Gold Coast. Pam Pearce asked me the same question last week. May need to bring it up at the next collegic meeting at Casino High

Jo Sth Cross.

We get ours from BOC or from Air Liquide..
I looked up the Air Liquide site and their furthest north place is here in newcastle - they may deliver to businesses up in your area.. contact is 02 49 49 1700
Kullara Ave, Rutherford

Try a chicken shop if you have one... We have a Biada outlet here and although I haven't been there for dry ice I have been told they have it. We get ours from BOC. Are you sure they aren't getting it anymore or was it just that they were out of it at the time? I got a bit worried when they told me once they don't have it anymore, but they had just run out and didn't know when they were getting their next lot.

Well BOC say they don't carry the dry ice anymore and they don't know who does. Elgas don't either and they suggested a party hire place. Have left a message with them and am waiting for a reply!

OK so here is the latest - everyone I tried said BOC is the place to get it! At the moment we have a Science Fair happening run by Macquarie Uni and they were told by BOC they don't have it BUT they could order it in from Caboolture for them if they ordered 78kg!! So they did and they collect it as they need it. So, I'm thinking it may be possible to put in an order among all the schools here and all collect it at the same time - don't know how that would work though, cost wise and logistics wise. 78 kg is a huge amount! We only need relatively small amounts at a time!

Oh, another thing. I contacted Glen Sawle outling iour problem sourcing dry ice, thinking that maybe we were no longer able to use dry ice in schools. His reply was that "no problems with using it in a demonstration - you are just not able to hand it out to students. This is predominantly because of the volume of carbon dioxide generated as the dry ice sublimates. Their response is not carrying it may be just that it is now old technology and they are using different cooling strategies".

Hi
Just checked up on our supplies in Nowra......no troubles here on the south coast.
Our supplier is agent for BOC and ELGAS.

I get my dry ice from the local winery, for free, whenever we want it . So if you have a winery near by or a bottling facility perhaps you could try them.

cheers kase

You could try your nearest hospital, as they need to use Dry Ice for some things.

Hi Robyn, sorry took long to post this, but was waiting for a reply from BOC,
My husband is the BOC distributor for Taree he contacted them and their answer is:
Almost every 2 weeks NORCO, orders bulk dry ice which is transported into lismore for them, if you would like a kilo etc, you need to ring BOC Gas & Gear in snow street, on fridays and they will tell you when or if NORCO has placed an order and they will let you have some of what is delivered to them, When you ring BOC(Snow ST) tell them this is the information that BOC head told us, But they don't order every week, and you may have to plan your pracs to fit in with delivery, Any problems contact me!
Trish.

Thanks for that Trish! A lady at Norco here has since said we can get a kilo or two when they get their order if we contact her. So that information fits with yours. Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions - this forum is great for sharing and solving problems.

We have been fortunate enough to receive some of the left over ice from the local pathology offices. After they finish transporting specimens their excess is thrown out. It helped that one of our teachers had her mother working there,so i don't know how much this had to do with our access to it. Otherwise the local gas and steel outlet can acquire it for us. Maybe worth a try.

If you a wanting dry ice in Sydney try Air Liquide. They have it in pellets 12mm and 3mm or solid block. It sells for
$ 9.30 per kilo and best picked up on the morning of the day of use. I took along an eski to carry it in and straight into the freezer when I got to school.