My name is Carver Anderson and I am the founder of Carver Fire. I started Carver Labs about five years ago to explore ways of making dry ice fire suppression practical- a mission that actually began in the 1990s with my father.
At the time, the big challenge was how to store dry ice and deliver it reliably in a fire system.
Over the past few years, after many prototypes and five full design iterations, that early work has evolved into our flagship system, ELSA.
This year we secured our first paying customer and rebranded as Carver Fire to reflect our focus on bringing this technology to market.
My first programming job was actually for my father. He was a hydraulics engineer who built dry ice machines and he paid me to write their control software when I was still in high school.
In the 1990s, he started exploring the potential of dry ice in fire suppression and I was hooked.
After college I worked at a scientific instrument company, building and programming research equipment, which gave me valuable engineering experience.
But, I never lost interest in fire suppression. I kept coming back to the same problem: how to store dry ice and make a system reliable enough for the real world.
Carver Anderson
In 2020, during the early days of COVID, I finally committed full-time to solving it.
Dry ice is a powerful cooling agent, but it’s notoriously difficult to work with. It sublimates quickly, fuses into blocks and can clog or fail to discharge.
Our mission was to make dry ice reliable: to find a way to store it safely and deliver it consistently when needed.
ELSA combines two key breakthroughs- long-term pellet storage and reliable discharge.
Carver Anderson
By solving those two problems, we made it possible for dry ice to function as the basis of a fire suppression system, one that can remain ready to discharge indefinitely with only a 48-volt DC power supply.
ELSA discharges a mixture of two proven suppression agents- CO₂ and nitrogen- but in unique physical forms.
We store the CO₂ as solid pellets and the nitrogen as a cryogenic liquid. When released, both undergo rapid phase changes delivering maximum cooling.
The nitrogen vaporizes instantly, creating an intense initial cooling effect. Meanwhile, the dry ice pellets continue to absorb heat for many hours, often 12 to 14, depending on the application.
That combination makes ELSA uniquely effective for lithium-ion and fuel fires that require both immediate knockdown and long-term cooling.
One of ELSA’s strengths on fuel fires comes from the CO₂ pellets. On release, they expand more than 800 times their volume and are several times colder than air.
Carver Anderson
Unlike liquid agents, CO₂ follows the path of the burning fuel itself, freezing it on contact and suffocating the fire.
Inside the system, the pellets are stored alongside liquid nitrogen in a slurry. On discharge, the mixture is roughly 70% CO₂ pellets and 30% liquid nitrogen.
The nitrogen has a dual role: it keeps the pellets from fusing together and also serves as the carrier fluid, propelling them out at extremely cold temperatures.
The system is also designed for straightforward refilling and redeployment, making it practical for both industrial sites and fire departments.
The reception has been eye-opening. When I connect with someone who understands battery fire hazards, they immediately want to talk because they haven’t found another product that addresses the problem.
Several safety professionals have told me they’ve been searching for a solution like this for years and nothing existed until ELSA.
Hearing that has been both validating and motivating, it underscores how urgent the need really is.
Another aspect that has resonated strongly is the environmental advantage. ELSA is clean, residue-free and leaves behind no toxic chemicals or water damage, which is an important factor for industries and insurers alike.
From a physics standpoint, it’s hard to imagine a better approach to many types of fire than spraying two inert gases in their coldest possible forms.
That’s why we see potential for ELSA across a broad range of hazards. For example, we’ve already demonstrated it on structural fires without causing water damage or hazardous runoff.
Looking ahead, partnerships are key. We’re working with Carbon Origins, another startup, to integrate ELSA with their robotic platform, Bobby. Together, we’re targeting dangerous fires where human intervention is too risky.
Carver Fire is still a young company, but with the right partners, we believe ELSA can redefine what’s possible in fire suppression.
Carver Anderson
We’re also pursuing collaborations to test ELSA against full EV fires, solar panel fires and other emerging challenges.
At the same time, we’re actively working with regulators and standards bodies to establish testing and compliance pathways, ensuring that ELSA can be deployed with full confidence in safety and performance.
We’ve also designed the system to use common industrial gases and proven components, keeping it as practical and cost-effective as possible.
