2021 R&D 100 Award for Precision Deicer

  • Omitaomu, Femi (Recipient), Bhaduri, Budhu (Recipient), Koch, Daniel (Recipient), Johnson, Christi (Recipient), Reed, Kyle (Recipient), Garrett, Matthew (Recipient), Homan, Kevin (Recipient) & Cadotte, Ernest (Recipient)

Prize: Honorary award

Description

Researchers from ORNL developed a method to more precisely gauge the amount of deicing materials, such as salt or brine, needed to deice a particular road.

With limited resources, cities typically apply the same amount of deicing materials to every road and estimate the volume needed based on traffic conditions or road conditions, but rarely combine the two factors. Additionally, deicing based on traffic alone often results in overtreatment in areas exposed to intense sunlight and undertreatment in areas with extenuating factors other than traffic.

The precision deicer uses light-detection and ranging data to consider not only traffic, but also road conditions, slope and solar radiation to calculate a road vulnerability index indicating how much deicing material should be applied in a particular area. Unlike current methods, the deicer generates reports for specific areas rather than an entire city, ensuring that each area is given the correct treatment and minimizing unnecessary business closures.

Additionally, the precision deicer conserves state resources by ensuring that only necessary amounts of deicing materials are distributed and reduces runoff incurred from deicers.

The City of Knoxville has adopted a prototype of the product.

Funding for this project was provided by ORNL Seed Money – Intelligent Spatial Modeling Approach for Deicing Urban Roads.

ORNL’s Olufemi Omitaomu led the development. ORNL’s Budhendra Bhaduri, Dan Koch, Christi Johnson, Frederick Kyle Reed and Matthew Garrett contributed to the development, along with Clinch River Computing’s Kevin Homan and the University of Tennessee’s Ernest Cadotte.

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