Show fink well for gas get it if but it its s used to make dry ice no one living in the cortex cortez dukiet envisioned in 1950 when a atlin frilling outfit from texas sunk a 3 pi W well ell about 15 miles west 0 of f fg e city in mceldo canon that ace gas as discovery would be carbon i oxide adde As a matter of fact the ft tillers flers were surprised at the well brells product today that same arbon carbon dioxide well and the dry lc plant built to process the product promises to be one of the boost important factors in the eco amic growth of the area gas from the wen Is not swee sweet ac according car ding to raymond mays jr executive vice president of colorado Carboni cs inc company processing cess marli na the carbon dioxide and marketing eting it the plant is located war ear the source well the plant sits on a rise in the shadow of at the sleeping ag ute a foot high mountain south of f cortez As the gas comei comes from i the depths it hag has a wellhead well head pressure of pounds and la Is per cent carbon dioxide carried to the plant by pipeline it is then pat t through the purifying process bei fore f ore being sent into the me ammonia cooling chamber from the cooling chamber the leas now ow a liquid is piped to a ful huge hydraulically operated dry ice press where it IT is compressed into pound chunks of dry ice the arks press chamber is kept at a temperature of 80 89 degrees b below zero fahren fahrenholt helt when the liquid gas enters the chamber it is transformed into snow and the snow in turn la is compressed into blocks of dry ice while in the press the snow is submitted to a pressure of 20 2500 pounds per square inch more than enough to press the wrinkles ou out t of your trousers the chunks of ke fee emerge from the press onto a cutting stand and there it Is cut into blocks 10 x 10 x ir 13 weighing 60 pounds each marketing dry ice it is not considered to be much of a problem by mays his main problem problem now DOW is product production lom present facilities at the he plant are capable of producing 30 tons per day ami and the plant operates seven days per week d during the peak s season eason the there now are six people pie employed ret at t the plant and mays envisions the day when production can be increased to tons per day with a comparable increase in the number umber of workers the well from which the gas is taken is feet deep and came carse as the result of oil exploration drilling in 1950 the resulting dry lea ice plant is the product of mays may love of engineering and solving difficult problems beems be he built the present plant mt designed the me equipment and Is responsible for its existence other than monetary contributions made by the drillers drillars dr illers byrd frost inc of dallas tex to power the plant the company drilled sw another well and this time struck natural gas or the kind used in the kitchen range The therefore refe there is no problem of power pow er fuel which normally would cost approximately each month MO nth transportation of at the finished product says mays presents somewhat ot of a problem because of the remote location of the installation i the road leading to ii it is typical of the many county support ed roads in western colorado it to Is barrow narrow gravel surfaced and winds through the canon country however it Is open the year around the present carbon dioxide wen well h has as a capacity of approximately 5 cubic feet daily and the supply apparently is unlimited |