Analysis of the Environmental Load During the Life Cycle of Road Snow-melting and Deicing Technology
Currently,the widely used snow-melting and deicing methods cause damage to road surfaces and the environment.To study the impact of asphalt-pavement snow-melting and deicing technology on the environment during its life cycle,three different snow-melting and deicing technologies were investigated:pavement containing salt,cable-heated pavement,and mechanical ice removal.Based on the life-cycle assessment method,the three snow-melting and deicing technologies were divided into five processes:raw-material mining,mixing,transportation,paving compaction,and snow removal.The impact of environmental emissions over the life cycle of the three snow-melting and de-icing technologies was quantified.Four environmental impacts-global-warming potential(GWP),acidification potential(AP),photochemical ozone creation potential(POCP),and human toxicity potential(HTP)-were considered to evaluate the environmental load of snow-melting and deicing technology.The results show that CO2 emissions are the largest in all stages of snow melting and deicing.The environmental loads of the three snow-melting and de-icing technologies are ranked throughout the life cycle:GWP>HTP>AP>POCP.Of the four impact categories,GWP accounts for more than 74%of the environmental load of the different snow-melting and de-icing technologies.To compare the environmental loads of different snow-melting and deicing technologies,their analysis results were normalized.It is concluded that the environmental load generated by the cable-heated pavement is the largest,while that generated by the pavement containing salt is the smallest.
pavement engineeringasphalt pavementlife cycle assessmentenvironmental loadsnow melting and deicing