Ben:
Like I said, I've done what you describe several times and I have a US patent on an automatic, PLC controlled, Dry Ice Pellet machine to boot. I have designed, installed, retro-fitted and operated various Dry Ice systems and plants. The last one I started up and operated was in Decatur, Ill. It used LCO2 supplied by the Archer-Daniels fermentation alcohol plant next door. I operated 3 "conventional" block dry ice presses (Larry, Curley, & Moe) and seven pellet machines from New Zealand (I named them after the 7 dwarfs). The pellet machines were such a pain and a loss that I decided to develop my own design. My patented design was built and worked immediately. My concept is based on bulk production of the pellets to satisfy the chicken and sausage meat producers.
So, I identify with what you are stating. And that is why I'm telling you that you can't produce economically competitive CO2 doing it the way that you propose. It just doesn't work for a variety of reasons that would take several threads in this forum to explain to you. Trust me on this one. A lot of what you are assuming you can do is not going to work - not because I say so, but because many others have tried and it has been proven out in the field that it won't work. I can tell you, for example, that you will be unable to control your chiller with the CO2 at 2 oC. You're going to freeze the system up trying to pull that off. dcasto put his finger on that in his post and he is right because I have shown that to be a fact in the field. That's not the optimum manner to remove water moisture from CO2. The way to do it is with adsorbers and Activated Alumina. Witteman will tell you the same thing as well as any other experienced CO2 process designer/fabricator (there's very few left after Witteman).
My credentials in the CO2 and dry ice business started in 1960 and I've designed, consulted, installed, modified, and operated these types of plants and produced countless tons of dry ice in such spots as Kingston, Jamaica; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; Barbados; Caracas, Venezuela; Lima, Peru, La Paz, Bolivia; Decatur, Ill; Houston,TX; Madrid, Spain; and many more that I've since forgotten. I have probably forgotten more CO2 stories than you have read. That's why I thought you might be interested in knowing what I, dcasto, and 25362 are trying to alert you to: do not think that you can do what you propose because you've read about it somewhere. It isn't that simple without the experience.
I hope this experience helps you out.