An Economical and Sustainable Dust Suppressant for Gravel Roads
The 66,000-mile-long network of unpaved gravel roads connect 1.2 million rural Iowa population and serves as a backbone to Iowa’s $27 billion per year agrarian economy. On unpaved roads, fugitive dust emanates from the mechanical interaction between the moving vehicles and the crushed aggregates. Fugitive dust primarily comprises of soil minerals (e.g., oxides of silicon, aluminum, calcium, and iron) with particulate material sizes lower than 10 μm (PM10) [4]. According to the National Transportation Statistics (NTS) report published in 2018, approximately 18.5 million short tons of PM10 and 5.34 million short tons of PM2.5 particulates (size lower than 2.5 μm) are entrained into the air annually. About 35% of this particulate material comes from unpaved roads. From the health, economic, and safety points of view, the generation of fugitive dust poses a serious threat to road users and people living in the vicinity of the unpaved roads. Furthermore, the unpaved roads will deteriorate faster due to the loss of fines that bind the larger aggregates. Fugitive dust lowers the visibility on gravel roads leading to accidents. Examples of some accidents occurred in the past due to fugitive dust include a chain of vehicle crashes near I-39 Wisconsin, accidents near Interstate 5 in Coalinga, California, a fatal ATV rollover crash in Carlton country, Minnesota, crashes in the intersection of Conejo Avenue and Highway 41, California; crashes on U.S. Highway 87 between Great Falls and Fort Benton, accidents in Butler County, Missouri, etc. Currently, chlorides especially Calcium Chloride are applied on gravel roads to lower the fugitive dust. Calcium chloride being a hygroscopic material absorbs moisture from the atmosphere that cements the fine particulate material. However, chlorides are detrimental to concrete, corrode automobiles, lower the fertility of soils, and contaminate water bodies. The objective of this project is to synthesize and characterize a low-cost and sustainable dust suppressant that has both hygroscopic nature and agglomeration capability. To this end, both wet and dry formulations will be synthesized. Evaporation tests and wind tunnel tests will be conducted followed by field tests. Preliminary studies suggest that the wet formulation is at least 6 times better than traditional chloride-based dust suppressants.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $99,482.00
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Contract Numbers:
TR-813
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Sponsor Organizations:
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA United States 50010 -
Managing Organizations:
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA United States 50010 -
Project Managers:
Goetz, Vanessa
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Performing Organizations:
660 S. College Ave
PO Box 873005
Tempe, Arizona United States 85287 -
Principal Investigators:
Yellavajjala, Ravi
- Start Date: 20230601
- Expected Completion Date: 20250630
- Actual Completion Date: 0
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Air quality management; Dust control; Gravel roads; Wetting agents
- Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01945612
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Iowa Department of Transportation
- Contract Numbers: TR-813
- Files: RIP, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Feb 12 2025 12:37PM