Move over, salt! A new eco-friendly deicer that uses fruit is in the works

Winter weather and cold temperatures make for a perfect recipe for ice on the roads. The go-to ingredient to melt it is usually sodium chloride, or road salt. While it's an effective treatment, chloride and other chemical deicers aren't environmentally friendly. They can have a damaging impact to cars, concrete, asphalt, and adjacent water bodies. Researchers at Washington State University cooked up a greener concoction using grape skins and other agricultural waste. "I developed technology that could derive green chemicals out of waste materials. Grape skins, like other agricultural byproduct or waste products, are feedstock. We don't use it directly. Instead, it's chemically and biologically broken down by bacteria," said WSU Associate Professor Xianming Shi. The result is a naturally fermented solution that enhances the performance of salt brine. The blend melts ice quicker than traditional deicers and reduces damage to concrete and asphalt because it uses less of the damaging salt.