Similar to shotblasting with steel shot, glass shot, plastic shot, and soda, dry ice jetting accelerates dry ice particles in a high-pressure airflow to impact the surface to be cleaned. The unique aspect of dry ice cleaning is that the dry ice particles instantly sublime upon impact. The momentum of the dry ice particles vanishes at the moment of impact. A rapid heat exchange occurs between the dry ice particles and the cleaning surface, causing the solid CO2 to quickly turn into gas. The dry ice particles expand nearly 800 times their original volume in fractions of a second, creating a "micro-explosion" at the point of impact. As the CO2 volatilizes, the dry ice cleaning process produces no secondary waste; only the debris removed during cleaning needs to be collected and disposed of.