| | Category | EV | P18 | Optimal Deicer Combination for Performance, Cost and Enviromental |
| | Impact |
| | Abstract | This project was inspired by watching salt being spread during the winter |
| | to melt ice and wondering whether there was a more efficient and |
| | balanced combination of deicers for the roads. The purpose of this |
| | research is to find the optimal combination of commonly available |
| | commercial products for deicers; rock salt (NaCl), Magnesium Chloride |
| | (MgCl2), Calcium Chloride (CaCl2), Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA). |
| | Three criteria were considered for this project; deicer cost, melting time |
| | efficiency and environmental impact. The first experiment was conducted |
| | by making fifty-six different combinations of deicer to obtain the melting |
| | time of constant amounts of ice. Six levels with fifty-six runs and three |
| | trials of Design of Experiment (DOE) were set up and analyzed to |
| | understand the main effect and interaction effect with respect to the |
| | criteria. The regression was constructed and an optimization was |
| | performed to determine the most favorable deicer combinations for the |
| | criteria of cost and time. Lettuce seeds grown in solutions of different |
| | deicers were used to represent the environmental impact. Ten lettuce |
| | seeds were grown in plates which consisted of the different combinations |
| | of a constant concentration. The length of the root grown from the seeds |
| | was used to determine the best and worst combinations of the |
| | environmental criteria. From this project, the model can be used for county |
| | roads and environmental departments to make knowledgeable decisions in |
| | support of their winter deicing budget and the reduction of potential |
| | environmental concerns. |
| | Bibliography | MDOT. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. |
| | <http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/ |
| | MDOT_Research_Report_R1495_207577_7.pdf>. |