The environmentally friendly alternatives are being examined by an R&D group funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The research goals of this group are to analyze the potential of known environruental friendly gases to serve as protective atmosphere, and also to develop and to evaluate new methods for protecting the surface of magnesium melts. One possible alternative is covering the magnesium melt with CO(2)-snow, which is deposited on the molten bath and decreases the surface temperature of the melt. On the other hand gas expansion is the result of the sublimation of the CO(2)-snow which displaces any oxygen at the surface of the molten magnesium.