NOVEL DEICING/ANTI-ICING MATERIALS WITH ENHANCED ENVIRONMENTAL ACCEPTABILITY

Aspen Systems, Inc. proposes the program "Novel Deicing/Anti-icing materials with Enhanced Environmental Acceptability." We will evaluate novel deicing and anti-icing materials that perform equal to or better than current materials, including the naturally occurring Anti-Freeze proteins, alanine-rich polypeptides, CaMg Acetate, and other materials as environmentally compatible deicing agents. We will test and rank these for overall deicing and anti-icing effectiveness by measuring mp deptression and ice growth inhibition. This will create an evaluation matrix, including environmental compatibility (e.g., BOD), deicing effectiveness, and cost projections. Results on biodegradability and aquatic toxicity will provide a comprehensive understanding of their environmental fate relative to ethylene glycol and urea. We will emphasize the AF proteins including their analysis by computational modeling, to design a low-cost synthetic analog. Dr Welsh, University of Missouri, will contribute $50,000 in hardware and software for their evaluation. We will provide proof-of-concept for selected deicers, and validate their ability to meet Air Force regulation 91-15, and obtain approval from the Air Force Materials Laboratory. In Phase II, we will concentrate on a reduced set of deicing and anti-icing materials, obtain or produce quantities sufficient for large-scale field testing in conjunction with the Institute of Snow Research, KRC, Michigan Technological University.