This idea was partially inspired by my friend Forrest's suggestion to develop footpaths that could be put on side walks to help mitigate slipping. There was some back and forth and tangential thought followed by tangential thought an idea occurred to me. Researchers did a study where they used pickle brine to remove snow build up. I am betting that there isn't enough pickle brine to successfully remove all the snow on America's highways, it does inspire a thought. A water bottling company could produce desalinated water, preferably using green energy, and the high salinity water produced as a by-product of the desalination process could be used to help melt snow. The fact that the water is bottled would allow us to avoid wasting groundwater supplies on bottled water shipped around. The real challenge is finding a location for the desalination plant that meets the requirements of relatively affordable green energy in the region, while also being near enough snow fall, that the cost of shipping the salty water isn't prohibitive. States north of Pennsylvania on the East coast and the entirety of the west coast have the potential to utilize this concept.
No comments:
Post a Comment