Former Developer Launches Green Technology Company with eye on Important Industry Niche

APOPKA - Michael Young, who headed Pelican Bay Development’s Orlando operations and oversaw construction of the Windermere Business Center in southwest Orlando, has launched a new green technology company that could play a big role in an important industry niche and save commercial property owners millions of dollars.

American Soda Blast Company, based in Apopka, cleans and strips surfaces---from building exteriors to food service equipment to antique cars---using highly pressurized sodium bicarbonate and dry ice.

Young said his process replaces traditional sand blasting---a century-old technique that scores and gouges surfaces with pressurized sand crystals---with a kinder, gentler surface stripping process that won’t harm the underlying substrate and utilizes common, easily biodegradable materials.

“Sodium bicarbonate is one of the most common compounds found in nature, and dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, which is what we exhale,” Young said.

Young said pressurized soda and dry ice can clean building exteriors or strip the paint from cars without harming the surfaces underneath. Scientists used the soda stripping process to restore the Statue of Liberty in the 1980s, Young said, but the stripping industry has been slow to give up its traditional sand blasting process.

“Sand blasting has always been the benchmark even though everyone knows it pits and scores the surface underneath,” Young said.

Young said American Soda Blast Company processes have a wide range of applications, from restoring the surfaces of technology equipment to stripping paint or molds from building exteriors.

“This process removes every bit of mold, paint or finish without harming the environment or the surface underneath,” Young said. “Weighed against chemical strippers, it is far safer and less toxic, and it is far less harmful to the object surface than sand blasting,” Young said.
Young said he expects first-year revenues to exceed projections.
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For more information, contact: Michael Young, American Soda Blast Co. Apopka, Florida; 407-931-6191; Michael@americansodablast.com