EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL-BASED ROAD TRANSPORT DEICING APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Snow and ice removal on highways and public streets is critical for safe operation of the road transportation infrastructure. The issues to be addressed in selecting suitable deicing and anti-icing materials include cost, effectiveness, and damage to the pavement, vehicles and the environment. Considerable research has been carried out in recent years to develop alternative deicers with better performance and cost effectiveness. Among the developed deicer materials are agricultural based deicers that are considered to be sustainable and environmentally-beneficial materials. Iowa is one of the States that is rich in agricultural renewable resources, some of which are being processed for applications such as fuel. Any industrial process, including that of converting corn to ethanol or soy to bio-diesel, is likely to have a number of by-products generated. Rather than face disposal issues for these by- products, it would be desirable to find those that, with a minimum of additional processing, can be used as a deicing compound, either alone, or in combination with products currently in use. Currently, a number of agricultural based deicer materials have been developed or are still under development. However, little information is known about the actual manufacturing/ refining process since most of the developed materials are all proprietary products (patented or commercial). Furthermore, no standard test specifying agricultural-based deicer is available. The study described in this paper focuses on the development of an improved agricultural based deicing product. The objective of this study was to evaluate deicer materials including traditional and alternative deicer materials on road skid resistance which is critical for safe operation of the road transportation infrastructure.