Treated Raffinate De-icer Viscosity and Melt Value
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current de-icing compositions, particularly liquid ice melters, face challenges such as high production costs, labor-intensive application, and limited melting effectiveness due to low viscosity and rapid penetration into surfaces, leading to inefficient ice melting and residual issues with chloride salts.
Innovation Solution
A de-icing composition using desugared sugar beet molasses treated with an alkali to increase pH, followed by acid addition to enhance melt value, which can be used alone or blended with chloride salts to increase viscosity and melting performance, reducing the need for chloride salts and enhancing vegetation benefits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If liquid ice melters with low viscosity are used, then application is easier and coverage is better, but the product penetrates too quickly into surfaces and does not stay in place, reducing melting effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the viscosity parameter of the liquid ice melter by adding additives or modifying the chemical composition. This allows the product to maintain liquid form for easy application while achieving higher viscosity to stay in place on pavement surfaces, resolving the contradiction between application ease and melting effectiveness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining traditional ice melting chemicals with viscosity-modifying additives or natural polymers. This creates a composite liquid formulation that retains the ice-melting properties of the base chemicals while gaining the viscosity control needed to prevent rapid penetration and improve surface residence time
2Reliability
If chloride salts are used to melt ice, then melting effectiveness is improved, but corrosion to application equipment and harmful effects on vegetation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes traditional chloride salts with alternative ice-melting chemicals that are less corrosive and more environmentally friendly. These alternative chemicals may include calcium magnesium acetate, potassium acetate, or other non-chloride compounds that achieve ice melting without the harmful side effects of chloride corrosion and vegetation damage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the previously harmful chloride salt-based formulations into beneficial environmentally-friendly alternatives. By replacing chloride salts with less corrosive chemicals, the invention transforms a harmful de-icing method into a beneficial one that protects equipment and vegetation while maintaining ice-melting effectiveness
3Object-generated harmful factors
If solid ice melters are used, then corrosion to equipment is reduced and vegetation benefits are provided, but labor cost increases due to manual application requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts solid ice melter formulations into liquid form, enabling hydraulic or pneumatic application systems to be used. This allows for mechanized spreading equipment to distribute the liquid ice melter efficiently over large areas, dramatically improving application productivity while maintaining the corrosion-reducing and vegetation-beneficial properties of the solid-melter chemistry
4Ease of operation
If prewetting solutions with high viscosity are used, then salt bounce and scatter are reduced, but melt value decreases due to slower ice melting action
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the viscosity parameter of prewetting solutions to achieve a balance point. By carefully controlling viscosity through additive selection and concentration, the formulation reduces salt bounce and scatter during application while maintaining sufficient fluidity and chemical reactivity to preserve high melt value and fast ice-melting action
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The treated raffinate composition significantly increases melt value and viscosity, providing a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly ice melting solution that can be used as a prewet or anticing agent, reducing chloride salt usage and improving surface coverage and melting performance.
Implementation Method 1
desugared, sugar beet molasses which has been treated with alkali to increase its pH to at least 11, followed by holding for a time sufficient to degrade the carbohydrates and protein
Implementation Method 2
holding for a time sufficient to degrade the carbohydrates and protein of the desugared, sugar beet molasses
Implementation Method 3
the pH is lowered by acid addition to at least 10
Implementation Method 4
These by-products increase the viscosity of the prewet solution
Implementation Method 5
Melt value' as used here refers to the ability to melt ice to water at a given temperature
Data Source
AI summary
A composition for both de-icing and inhibiting formation of ice and snow that uses as its predominant ingredient desugared, sugar beet molasses which has been treated with alkali to increase its pH to at least 11, followed by holding for a time sufficient to degrade the carbohydrates and protein of the desugared, sugar beet molasses, and then the pH is lowered by acid addition to at least 10. These steps, in this sequence, substantially and surprisingly increase melt value.