Performance and Impacts of Current Deicing and Anti-icing Products: User Perspective Versus Experimental Data

This paper reports on the relevant information collected to date through an ongoing two-year research project funded by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) with the goal of identifying alternative deicers to chlorides. A nation-wide survey was conducted of highway maintenance agencies to rank the advantages of specific deicers with respect to low cost per lane mile, low effective temperature, high ice melting capacity, ease of application, and overall safety benefits for winter roads based on field experience or research from the respondent’s agency. According to the results, most responding maintenance agencies still depend on chlorides and abrasives for snow and ice control. Less than 25% of the survey respondents used alternative deicers such as potassium acetate, calcium magnesium acetate, sodium acetate, and potassium formate. The average ranking results show agricultural product-based deicers being the most advantageous, abrasives being the least and no significant difference between chlorides and acetates/formates based on the perceived advantages. Users were also asked to rank the disadvantages of specific deicers with respect to corrosion to metal, impacts on concrete and asphalt pavements, impacts on water quality, impacts on soil, vegetation, wild life and human health, and overall effects to structures and the environment. The average ranking results show that acetates and formates in general were perceived to have the least impacts and chlorides the most. Literature and experimental data indicated that the negative impacts of acetates and formates were greater than perceived by survey respondents, especially with respect to damage to pavement, structures and water quality. As such, CDOT has decided not to use available potassium or other acetate compounds.