Just when you thought beet juice was only an Akron problem:
Some Ohio officials plan to use beet juice to beat road ice this winter.
In the state capital, Columbus has bought more than 1,000 gallons of beet juice to mix with brine for a deicing concoction that's been used effectively elsewhere in the Midwest. When added to brine, water with a heavy salt concentration, the mixture freezes at a lower temperature than brine alone.
"We are going to be experimenting with it in various temperatures and various snow amounts," said Mary Carran Webster, the city's assistant public service director.
The city of Akron tested the solution last year, and just ordered 4,000 gallons of liquefied beet juice to start the winter.
The Ohio Department of Transportation also plans to try out the stuff this winter in the northwest corner of Summit County and parts of Lake County and western Cuyahoga County.
I don't see how in the world this can be cost effective.
depends on how it works.
Well, Billy, beet juice would have to work about 700% better than just plain old salt to be cost effective. That's approximately the difference in price between the two.
According to this article, the beet juice mixture cuts the number of brine sprays needed to clear a road from three to one pass. But that still doesn't mean the beet juice is cheaper. However, in an article about the beet juice used by Akron's street department, the beet juice is mixed into the brine solution in a 20:1 ratio. So while pure beet juice wouldn't be cost effective, the per gallon cost of the beet juice when mixed with the brine. The $2.60 per gallon price listed in the article I linked to only adds $.13 per gallon to the cost of the mixture sprayed on streets. If it is three times as effective than the solution used previously, the added cost of the beet juice may be nullified by savings of gas and brine used on the second and third passes.
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"When I say your dumb name, please stand up briefly, but then quickly drop to your knees and forsake all others before me." -Ignignokt
Gasoline is cheaper than beet juice. Maybe, we could buy gas, spread it on the roads, and light it. I'll bet that would melt the ice.
By the way, beet juice could be another boondoggle that might raise (once again) the cost of our food products, the same way that corn from ethanol is raising the cost of meat, milk, bread, etc. If more beet products go into highway maintenance, the cost of sugar could go up, making another food group more expensive. Oh, well. Somebody will make a pile of money off this. Unfortunately, not you or me.
Does it work 700% better?
I can do math too, but my question is still out there.
Salt eats concrete - Does beet juice? if we use beet juice will our highways last longer?
Im just wanting the info pete - sorry if that pisses you off.
Not pissed off, Billy... making a joke here. I don't really give a shit.