8 innovative, environmentally safe alternatives to rock salt for deicing roads
Government agencies across the United States are tasked every winter with maintaining roads during snow and ice events, and some highway maintenance experts have turned to unconventional sources instead of rock salt for their road clean-up needs. More municipalities are using organic brines, food-based treatments or high-tech plows and pavement to lower costs and limit environmental impacts.
Me, "Some tricks that municipalities use to melt snow from roads."
From article, (Some roads in Wisconsin are treated with cheese brine from local dairy companies.
Salt baths used in making cheeses like mozzarella or provolone need to be discarded as a waste product, and it costs money to have it treated off site.
When government leaders in Polk County, Wisconsin, were looking for ways to reduce the use of rock salt, they teamed up with a neighboring dairy operation to take the salty liquid off their hands.
Today, Polk County uses up to 30,000 gallons of cheese brine each winter to spray on the roads in a pre-wetting technique. The dairy disposes it for free and the county acquires it for free -- a win-win, according to authorities.
De-sugared sugar beet molasses is described as an agricultural byproduct created when sugar beets are used to make commercial grade sugar, according to CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. A form of beet brine has become a useful tool for many highway departments.
"Beet Heet” is an organic based, liquid deicer that contains processed beet molasses. It’s been used by more than 200 agencies in eight states, according to a brochure from K-Tech Specialty Coatings, Inc.
When combined with the traditional deicing agent of salt, the beet product freezes at a lower temperature than just a pure salt brine, so it can be used in subzero temperatures.)
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