ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Heavy Snow Can Be Melted on the Spot by an Intellectualized Thermal Energy Utilization System against the Background of Snow-Melting Agents Ban Policy
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Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, YICCAS, Yantai, Shandong 264003, P.R. China
 
 
Submission date: 2024-12-06
 
 
Final revision date: 2025-04-04
 
 
Acceptance date: 2025-04-19
 
 
Online publication date: 2025-07-03
 
 
Corresponding author
Yanqing Sheng   

Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, YICCAS, Yantai, Shandong 264003, P.R. China
 
 
 
KEYWORDS
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ABSTRACT
As the main snow removal methods on roads, snow-melting agents and mechanical removal are neither environment-friendly nor energy-friendly. Against the background of the snowmelting agent’s ban policy, a novel intellectualized thermal energy utilization system was designed in this work to melt snow automatically on the spot. It comprises a mobile ice-snow melting device and a fuzzy control-based intelligent energy-efficient system. The heat-dissipating simulation for this device’s physical model illustrated this structure’s excellent performance in gathering and melting snow, maximizing heat utilization, and conserving energy. Importantly, key findings reveal that the device could be universally applicable in various snowfall circumstances by conducting comprehensive snow-melting experiments. After establishing the energy flow model and analyzing the cost accounting and carbon footprint, this work not only lays a theoretical foundation for the intelligent system based on optimal energy use efficiency and sufficient capacity for melting snow but also finds this novel device is more environment-friendly and cost-effective in practical applications compared to others. These findings can assist policymakers in cold regions to progressively transform relevant policies from an economic to an environmental orientation, which may contribute to urban infrastructure planning, management, or maintenance.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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ISSN:1230-1485
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