Dry Ice Company

We visit a local company that his helping to keep the new Covid-19 vaccine on ice.

State health department the pfizer vaccine will be tomorrow.

One of the requirements for the vaccine is it be stored at minus 94 degrees.

Brian armstrong joins us live in studio as he finds out how an area ice company is helping out a near by hospital.

That's our top local story.

Tennessee valley ice company is supplying the dry ice to erlanger hospital.

We spoke with tennessee valley ice company about how they work safely with the dry ice--- and what it means to be a part of the fight against covid-19.

According to the tennessee state health department the covid vaccine is expected to arrive in chattanooga tomorrow ... and with the pfizer vaccine requiring such a low temperate ... erlanger hospital is getting an assist from tennessee valley ice company.

The has the vaccine comingand they were not going to invest in the freezers and they need to dry ice for storage so we were glad to work with them to just have a small part of it.

Tennessee valley ice company makes around 200 tons of ice each day.

Even though the company doesnt produce dry ice, it plays a key roll in storing and distributing the dry ice safely.

Dry ice will burn you because it's 110 below 0 so you handle dry ice with gloves.

You don't get into close with it because it's primarily co2 it will eliminate the oxygen in the area you're in.

Bloodworth says dry ice always sublimates ... or turns into gas ... but tennessee valley ice company says it store the ice to make sure the loss is only 2 or 3 percent a day.

You can only store dry ice by insulating it and keeping it sealed it's sublimates from the moment it's made you can only slow it down but it's a slow process.

He says erlanger has already purchased 500 pounds of dry ice to store the pfizer vaccine.

He says it's incredible for the company to be a part of the fight against covid.

Anything we're a part of that's going to help eliminate or eradicate this virus, we are very excited to be a part of.

According to the tennessee state health department if everything goes according to plan the first wave of the covid vaccine will be at erlanger hospital tomorrow it'll be paired up with the 500 lbs of dry ice.

Bloodworth says he and the company are honored to take part in the battle against covid--- even if it is something like properly storing and destributing dry ice.

Reporting live in studio brian