by Yolanda Sung
Given the fact that there was a huge blizzard that just hit the Midwest, this article could not have been written at a better time. I know at least in Brookings, South Dakota, we are having a lot of issues with clearing out the snow, even from snowstorms that occurred weeks ago. We rely mainly on these snow trucks that would come and clear out the snow with their shovels, but sometimes, I still see people out there in the negative degree temperature and trying to blow snow away from driveways and neighborhood streets! And although the streets do get cleared eventually, in the short run, it can increase workplace disruptions and create hazardous sidewalks for pedestrians.
The good news is that scientists have figured out a way to melt snow and ice apparently on its own, by attempting to build roads that can do that automatically. This idea is not a novel one; there have already been studies on trying to make roads safer by incorporating chemicals like chloride that could increase its snow and ice melting abilities. Therefore, this unfortunately means that there are environmental costs to this solution.
However, these scientists have figured out a method to increase snow melting without the use of chloride. Instead, they used surfactants, which reduce surface tension, silicon dioxide, sodium bicarbonate (an important component of baking soda), and blast furnace slag (waste product from power plants) and grinded it all into a fine powder and coated it all with a solution. They mixed that in with the asphalt to be built into the road.
After testing this, it seemed that if the road was 5 cm thick, it would be effectively melting ice for around 7-8 years, and it was capable of melting snow that was on the side of the roads as well, meaning that expensive machinery would not have to go through and plow it out the edges as well.
Most people may not be familiar with the uses of slag, so it’s probably best to drop a few of these links down here for reference:
(PDF) USE OF COPPER SLAG AS SUSTAINABLE AGGREGATE (researchgate.net)
Slag-What is it Good for? | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)
Sustainability for Blast Furnace Slag: Use of Some Construction Wastes – ScienceDirect
Article credits (full article in American Chemical Society):
Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own — ScienceDaily
Study on chloride in road-salt use:
