Dec 28, 2022 12:16 AM
funkystay
150865
1332
26
beerlady
I feel there are more efficient ways to melt snow.
SumdumCanadiun
I see these used a lot for contaminated snow. Salt, oil etc, they can contain the contamination in the water for treatment
Chort26
v
YesPleaseSomeMore
Let's just melt climate change away
AllTheGoodUserNamesAreTakenFML
Meanwhile I'll get taxed if I don't buy an electric vehicle that costs 20k more and still has huge battery pollution.
Knobby
Needs to be atomic powered.
underthegaydar
Seems like it could be less wasteful if they turned the heat down instead of trying to flash fry it.
meatstain
Used these in the Arctic oil field when there was a small oil spill. One of the few ways to separate the snow from oil and dispose of it.
Tarmaccian
How to separate snow from oil: Burn it all and let God sort it out. (/s)
jeremiahblatz
In NYC we dump it in the rivers.
4vie
I don't know if that would even remotely begin to purify them...
TheEvolutionaryBrake
Thats the most american thing I have seen today. And not in a good way. (Is there ever..?)
PineappleLoopsBroether
I’ve never seen such a stupid device like this… and I’ve had to live here the entire time…
iHATEcAPSlOCK
Looks like climate change is not yet severe enough if we choose to waste energy and pollute the air for such an idiotic use case.
Seriously…. This is a trump era device… fuck
dspsbl14ent
JarnoF
Ackchyually: Here in Helsinki Finland, it has been calculated that this would consume less energy than transporting the snow away to dumps.
fformulaa
Thought it was an industrial sized deep fyer from the thumbnail pic
TheWarHymn
At 5,800,000 BTUs, I don't see why this CAN'T be used as a deep fryer....
demosteness
Oh a climate changing machine
Roqinn
I can see the use. One year NYC had so much snow that some piles lasted until August!
gmdave
Montreal almost went a full year in 2019. One of our snow dumps in an abandoned quarry formed into a glacier that fully melted late October
Keeperofthe7keys
I would struggle to come up with more wasteful ways to get rid of snow from desired surfaces.
ragazzino
The phase change from solid to liquid takes a lot of energy.
CatsIsTheAnswer
Oh fuck off, just go to Taco Bell like the rest of us
Jagernot
The same amount of energy needed to melt one gram of 0° ice into one gram of 0° water (334 Joules) could heat that one gram of water 1/
all the way up to 80° ....and that's Celsius too.
ThirtyForth
Even just heating water takes a fuckton of energy.
harmsebamse
Tell that to my bowels
ToasterDent
That's ok - we have an unlimited amount of this oil stuff we can burn with no consequences at all!
makeSX
The trucks use a lot of fuel as well if you need to haul the snow somewhere
HasteTheFool
Just get children to turn the snow into snowmen, wait till midnight, and shoot them down over a reservoir.
I know you ment that as a joke but: I watched in July at a wheeloader 2-stories (of snow) above ground level trying to rip the snow ->
Mountain apart. All open bodies of water (including the sea) is frozen so pushing the snow on the ice would just cause more problems ->
[deleted]
1 ton of snow is just under 100 cubic feet. It becomes pretty cheap snow removal.
According to the manufacturer, they could melt 18 tons of ice (about 163 cubic metres of snow @10% water content) while burning 30-40 gal>
reallynotmikepence
Sounds about right.
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54
Nuttsy
So, half the consumption in the best case scenario? Yikes. Love me some counter-intuitive shit like this.
The alternative is to make the cities walk/ski friendly, which might not be a bad thing.
Yeah, I had made a similar assumption elsewhere here. Though, service and utility vehicles would mean the relative gains wouldn't be much.
ThomasThundersword
i mean, like anything improvements# is good. half the consumption IS an improvement, just not one we stop at. a next step would reasonably>
be to design a fully electric one (which would still be dirty because the grid isn’t clean yet) then get enough green energy to power it>
Of heavy fuel/diesel. To ship the same amount of snow will require a full size dump truck to do about 15-20 trips at 5-6 miles per gal fuel.
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54 sorry about the edits/deletes, keep getting numbers mixed up.
It's a matter of volume. Snow is mostly air, so it takes up much more room than solid ice. The truck might be able to haul 13 tons/
but the box it's got might not hold 13 tons of snow volume-wise. If we go with 300 kg /m3 for packed wet snow, you got about 72 cubic yards/
unfamiliarHorse
how to kill a planet 101
mercbrit
Remind me why climate change is happening again?
TheGriffin
Some airports use this when space for piling is at a premium
m3thos
In my city we put all the snow in one big ass pile and then makes bets about what day in July or August it’ll finally all be melted away
BlackCatCasper
Edmonton???
Lol yes
CrazyCatLad
I take the kids to the Target parking lot and we play on the massive snow mounds at night after they close.
MenloPart
We had a nice big pile here in Arizona. I took a picture.
seentoomuchdeath
We’re waiting!…….
Ok, it’s Arizona, so I have to be impressed. But those are rookie numbers. Thanks for working on the pic!
I am sure that Flagstaff has done better. They are higher and get much more snow!
ukalliq
They had to get the equipment out in September because it was clearly not going to melt before it snowed again this year.
Zahnradfee
They should have grown their own glacier. Those are threatened by extinction.
Init1alDee
Alaska/Northern Canada?
Fairbanks.
LupusLilium
That first snow this year was bonkers and threw off my whole rhythm.
tacosarejustmexicansandwhiches
This cannot possibly be the most efficient solution for this.
What do you base this on?
donpat
Hauling the snow away is less efficient. More efficient would be just having a pile in the middle of town but that's not always possible
Most efficient would probably involve consigning half the streetplan to the frost gods for a season, as well as subterranean transit magic.
BoboTheIceMan
https://www.interstatepm.com/on-site-snow-melting/ kinda interesting
Hekatombe
"Quiet operation – operates at less than 70 dB". ?
LeumisRichardson
So, about that of a washing machine.
mirria
That's less noise than the machinery that dumps the snow into the machine.
And any work equipment below 70 dB(A) doesn't need to be labeled with its noise level (at least in EU)
otamolot
Now that global warming is over.
SillyKilly
I did a paper on these in university! From an energy standpoint they are often more efficient as most urban areas truck snow out to melt
PTNLemay
Fait point, I hadn't considered the transportation.
wishiewashy11
But what do they do with all the water?
EmpressNikki
Down the storm drain to mix in with all the fishes
pleaseconsiderthatImightbejoking
Okay, but why not truck it into a park or something?
So it's comparing running of these in place with a diesel motor or sending a number of dump trucks full of snow to drive for 8hr a day
This is obviously highly dependent on where snow would otherwise be removed to. In a small city it could be relatively close
But for major urban areas you can be looking at moving literal tons of material 100s of kilometers by truck to dump in a field somewhere
But park one of these bad boys on top of a storm drain and you can take potentially dozens of trucks off the roads, burning net less fuel
The main reason they aren't very widely used or known about is they are pretty expensive and super niche. Fleets of dump trucks can be used
Now I got myself wondering how fast diesel and electric cargo trains drop out of the equation.
My research was based on Canada and northern USA so trains are sadly not in the equation :(
WeylandYutaniCorp
Or OR we stop relying on roads and cars for everything and build public transport and skip this step entirely
Super down for this!
warrenwoodworks8888
What you do when there's no place left to put the snow
aluminumfalconjumpercables
Move because it’s too crowded ?
there is space, there are places left
Corrodias
It occurs to me that our city designs might have flaws.
khold90
The joys of high density combined with buildings that don't like 100+ tonnes of snow on their roof.
putcleverusernamehere
Exactly. La Guardia has these, but waaay bigger. Nowhere to put the snow
and europe hasn't .... strange
CgnCalling
Isn’t la guardia by the water?
Filanwizard
I am guessing they used to just push it off the end of that one runway that sticks into the water.
Probably, but you have to transport each bucketfull two miles round trip with the tractor, in a snow storm, at a busy airport
RenegadeBlob
Normally trucked away. This is 1 operator and probably less diesel.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Exactly, if it's taking less energy than driving it out of the city to dump, then it makes sense.
somnif
Specs on it are 18 tons of snow melted with 30-40 gallons of fuel. ...I have no idea how that compares to trucking.
extremely favorably
Dump truck will get 5mpg in city at best. It's ~12 yards so ~ 3.25 tons of snow. 5.5 trips for 18 tons. 31.8 miles per trip with 35 gallons.
Huh. Even accounting for the truck needed to haul this thing to a site it definitely is more fuel efficient (unless the bobcat is a guzzler)
ArcheiaSophiaMetatronsWife
This.... Our towns use side streets, parts of parking lots, empty lots and fields.... Etc. And pile it high
GravyEducation
To this day I see them, want to get out of my car and play on them
TheNLK
Even when that is considered, there comes a point where you are running out of places to put it. In Finland I know they sometimes 1/2
Have a snow dump so big it doesn't melt before the next winter starts.
rd77Runner
we do... some of them are stored on purpose though... to have early start on ski season, or to use on AC cooling during summer etc.
Tifandi
yup, when you dump it into the harbor.. you dump a whole lot of other crap with it
Kenbamazingbutprobablywontbe
Think about the salt content used around bodies of water. And what effect that might have on fresh water animals/insects
elmesito
The next question is, where does the water from the melted snow go?
Probably right back into the water source. But hopefully its treated at least.
onlyhalfghost
there's fresh water in the Hudson?
badatediting
Not any more
There are 100k lakes here where i live. Most landmasses have lots with roads nearby. The runoff is ecologically bad.
Unless you think tons of salt and sand are good to just constantly introduce into an ecosystem that doesn't have it naturally.
Zapathasura
What's as big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shit-load of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces?
Sdougy
@ops mom boom
iplaytrombone
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54 burns diesel at 30-40 gal/hr which equates to 670-900 lbs of CO2/hr.
BlindGardener
I guess global warming is one way to melt snow
ROGUEdenied
Fuel consumption of 30-40 gallons/hr (max)
That's about 110-150 litres per hour, so it's worst than a Soviet apple cutting machine.
or worst than your Mom's vintage fuel powered vibrator. Sorry I could not stop myself
spectrumchris
We ran a couple (briefly), it was more like 200L/hr, each...
spittleteets
They invented the AK-47 and decided that was enough engineering for a century.
950d0chief350
You mean the sturmgewehr 44 knockoff?
SpongeBob SquarePants!
joot
Elon Musk?
Musk would promise a machine that cuts apples into a million pieces, and then show a protoype that cuts an apple in half... some of the time
drosophilamelanogaster
And have a bunch of grown men falling over each other to suck his micropeen.
DragonBjorne
You beat me to it you sommammabitch!
KarmannGeezer
My wife?
mai wiiiife
BidenduexMaximus
i'm a panty-melting machine and i run on pure alcohol
aloharamada
Are the panties in question yours and do you melt them with your hot liquor sharts?
1morebanforafreeshake
What? No. This dude is practically homeless and hasn’t owned a pair of panties in years. Too busy buying alcohol.
HighLordRegentofChaos
The GOP
ButterfaceTaintClown
my wife
HangingOnTheEdgeOfTomorrow
Wow, did they come out with a new model of juice loosener?
There's a new model? Does it come with a free sample of Sun and Run?
DogHeadHunter
Your mom
ChalkCoatedDonut
For any oil tycoon or one of those loud gun crazy pickup truck owner, that's a real car for a real patriot.
yourcommentisstupid
That's a trailer...
Which movie is it?
BreandanJennings
Get it looks absurd, but in places with lots of snow, you run out of places to push it. Eventually, you have to melt it yourself
pseydtonne
1) Dump the fresh stuff into a nearby river or lake. 2) 2nd-round stuff with salt goes into big storm drain openings. Let the crud settle.
saalor
Then better planning is needed. Of we want a habitable planet we cannot make such excuses
A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!
patotheduck
Do you want the window comrade?
Vengeraxe
Sounds like a Gnomish invention to me.
TwoDogsFucking
Good one! v
evenelectronicbrainpancakecrystalelderly
"now you look like the minister for coal"
GadenKerensky
Apparently the actual minister of coal was a beefier dude respected by the miners because he was one.
that makes the casting a fantastic in-joke
LadyRex
The Chernobyl podcast explains why they took the creative liberties they did, I respect it. But also how interesting this story is by itself
The5lacker
It's very good joke comrade, but unfortunately I must now escort you to gulag.
thatiscomedygoldrightthere
That is comedy gold right there!
SixFingersOnMyRightHand
MeeepMorp
She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.
dualplains
"Our" joke.
The people’s joke.
Dunothar
No words...
Apothecarius
Hard as fuck street ice that won't melt for months is my guess.
My guess is that anywhere to dump the snow is so far off that the gas used to transport the snow is greater than the energy used to run this
RabidDingo
You should see the snow clearing process at a major airport like Denver. They have at least 6 that clear taxiways.
YouRadicalizedMe
Wtf lads?!?!?
rmsrmsrms38
We have these at my work. Literally no where to put the snow and we can't leave it. Gotta melt it. Cheaper than moving the -->
Snow to another location via truck. Our melters also don't look like dumpster fires either.
Then come up with a better solution. People like this is why the environment is fucked.
Come up with a better solution? You think we didn't try before we invested nearly $2M in these machines? Lol. K.
imgjim
Yeah the burners are not running right at all on this one. She's running rich with all that black smoke. Should be smokeless, only steam
Magjee
Might be really dirty snow?
the snow doesn't contact the flame. water from melted snow is heated as it's pumped through a boiler tube array and melts more snow
I do wonder if this is more fuel efficient than trucking the snow to a field/whatnot.
zouwia
Depends on how far you need to truck, on urban centers melting can be more efficient.
SenfinaZeit
Depends on far you have to drive, but the energy consumption on snow melters is no joke.
mikeatike
Probably uses less energy than using a dump truck to move it away.
No, but probably cheaper. Which dosent makes it right. Fuels is still to cheap if people is doing this.
You realize that trucks run on the same fuel as this?
I also realise how much energy is needed to melt snow. We cannot be this wasteful with energy anymore.
Actually now that I think of it, it's probably not the cost of fuel they are trying to save. It's the cost of the labor of the drivers to
acornsagainstssquirrels
Actually less energy than trucking it out like they would normally have to do, and waayy less emissions, land, and vehicles on the road
This machine burns 30-40gal/hr diesel. Semis average 8. Sauce: googling and the melter’s website.
That for a round trip, or one-way?
The melter’s manufacturer said 30-40 gal of diesel fuel per hour. Google said a diesel semi traveling down the road uses 8 gal per hour.
Obv there’s variation in the truck based on load, fuel efficiency, speed, etc., but still that’s a pretty stark difference.
Alright, so that's 16 for an idealised round trip, at halved capacity. Pushing 32ish, before we even nuked fuel efficiency on low speeds.
Also, the melter’s website emphasized its purpose being removing snow from the top level of parking ramps.
beerlady
I feel there are more efficient ways to melt snow.
SumdumCanadiun
I see these used a lot for contaminated snow. Salt, oil etc, they can contain the contamination in the water for treatment
Chort26
YesPleaseSomeMore
Let's just melt climate change away
AllTheGoodUserNamesAreTakenFML
Meanwhile I'll get taxed if I don't buy an electric vehicle that costs 20k more and still has huge battery pollution.
Knobby
Needs to be atomic powered.
underthegaydar
Seems like it could be less wasteful if they turned the heat down instead of trying to flash fry it.
meatstain
Used these in the Arctic oil field when there was a small oil spill. One of the few ways to separate the snow from oil and dispose of it.
Tarmaccian
How to separate snow from oil: Burn it all and let God sort it out. (/s)
jeremiahblatz
In NYC we dump it in the rivers.
4vie
I don't know if that would even remotely begin to purify them...
TheEvolutionaryBrake
Thats the most american thing I have seen today. And not in a good way. (Is there ever..?)
PineappleLoopsBroether
I’ve never seen such a stupid device like this… and I’ve had to live here the entire time…
iHATEcAPSlOCK
Looks like climate change is not yet severe enough if we choose to waste energy and pollute the air for such an idiotic use case.
PineappleLoopsBroether
Seriously…. This is a trump era device… fuck
dspsbl14ent
JarnoF
Ackchyually: Here in Helsinki Finland, it has been calculated that this would consume less energy than transporting the snow away to dumps.
fformulaa
Thought it was an industrial sized deep fyer from the thumbnail pic
TheWarHymn
At 5,800,000 BTUs, I don't see why this CAN'T be used as a deep fryer....
demosteness
Oh a climate changing machine
Roqinn
I can see the use. One year NYC had so much snow that some piles lasted until August!
gmdave
Montreal almost went a full year in 2019. One of our snow dumps in an abandoned quarry formed into a glacier that fully melted late October
Keeperofthe7keys
I would struggle to come up with more wasteful ways to get rid of snow from desired surfaces.
ragazzino
The phase change from solid to liquid takes a lot of energy.
CatsIsTheAnswer
Oh fuck off, just go to Taco Bell like the rest of us
Jagernot
The same amount of energy needed to melt one gram of 0° ice into one gram of 0° water (334 Joules) could heat that one gram of water 1/
Jagernot
all the way up to 80° ....and that's Celsius too.
ThirtyForth
Even just heating water takes a fuckton of energy.
harmsebamse
Tell that to my bowels
ToasterDent
That's ok - we have an unlimited amount of this oil stuff we can burn with no consequences at all!
makeSX
The trucks use a lot of fuel as well if you need to haul the snow somewhere
HasteTheFool
Just get children to turn the snow into snowmen, wait till midnight, and shoot them down over a reservoir.
makeSX
I know you ment that as a joke but: I watched in July at a wheeloader 2-stories (of snow) above ground level trying to rip the snow ->
makeSX
Mountain apart. All open bodies of water (including the sea) is frozen so pushing the snow on the ice would just cause more problems ->
[deleted]
[deleted]
ragazzino
1 ton of snow is just under 100 cubic feet. It becomes pretty cheap snow removal.
ragazzino
TheWarHymn
According to the manufacturer, they could melt 18 tons of ice (about 163 cubic metres of snow @10% water content) while burning 30-40 gal>
[deleted]
[deleted]
reallynotmikepence
Sounds about right.
TheWarHymn
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54
Nuttsy
So, half the consumption in the best case scenario? Yikes. Love me some counter-intuitive shit like this.
TheWarHymn
The alternative is to make the cities walk/ski friendly, which might not be a bad thing.
Nuttsy
Yeah, I had made a similar assumption elsewhere here. Though, service and utility vehicles would mean the relative gains wouldn't be much.
ThomasThundersword
i mean, like anything improvements# is good. half the consumption IS an improvement, just not one we stop at. a next step would reasonably>
ThomasThundersword
be to design a fully electric one (which would still be dirty because the grid isn’t clean yet) then get enough green energy to power it>
TheWarHymn
Of heavy fuel/diesel. To ship the same amount of snow will require a full size dump truck to do about 15-20 trips at 5-6 miles per gal fuel.
TheWarHymn
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54 sorry about the edits/deletes, keep getting numbers mixed up.
[deleted]
[deleted]
TheWarHymn
It's a matter of volume. Snow is mostly air, so it takes up much more room than solid ice. The truck might be able to haul 13 tons/
TheWarHymn
but the box it's got might not hold 13 tons of snow volume-wise. If we go with 300 kg /m3 for packed wet snow, you got about 72 cubic yards/
unfamiliarHorse
how to kill a planet 101
mercbrit
Remind me why climate change is happening again?
TheGriffin
Some airports use this when space for piling is at a premium
m3thos
In my city we put all the snow in one big ass pile and then makes bets about what day in July or August it’ll finally all be melted away
BlackCatCasper
Edmonton???
m3thos
Lol yes
CrazyCatLad
I take the kids to the Target parking lot and we play on the massive snow mounds at night after they close.
MenloPart
We had a nice big pile here in Arizona. I took a picture.
seentoomuchdeath
We’re waiting!…….
MenloPart
seentoomuchdeath
Ok, it’s Arizona, so I have to be impressed. But those are rookie numbers. Thanks for working on the pic!
MenloPart
I am sure that Flagstaff has done better. They are higher and get much more snow!
ukalliq
They had to get the equipment out in September because it was clearly not going to melt before it snowed again this year.
Zahnradfee
They should have grown their own glacier. Those are threatened by extinction.
Init1alDee
Alaska/Northern Canada?
ukalliq
Fairbanks.
LupusLilium
That first snow this year was bonkers and threw off my whole rhythm.
tacosarejustmexicansandwhiches
This cannot possibly be the most efficient solution for this.
reallynotmikepence
What do you base this on?
donpat
Hauling the snow away is less efficient. More efficient would be just having a pile in the middle of town but that's not always possible
Nuttsy
Most efficient would probably involve consigning half the streetplan to the frost gods for a season, as well as subterranean transit magic.
BoboTheIceMan
https://www.interstatepm.com/on-site-snow-melting/ kinda interesting
Hekatombe
"Quiet operation – operates at less than 70 dB". ?
LeumisRichardson
So, about that of a washing machine.
mirria
That's less noise than the machinery that dumps the snow into the machine.
Hekatombe
And any work equipment below 70 dB(A) doesn't need to be labeled with its noise level (at least in EU)
otamolot
Now that global warming is over.
SillyKilly
I did a paper on these in university! From an energy standpoint they are often more efficient as most urban areas truck snow out to melt
PTNLemay
Fait point, I hadn't considered the transportation.
wishiewashy11
But what do they do with all the water?
EmpressNikki
Down the storm drain to mix in with all the fishes
pleaseconsiderthatImightbejoking
Okay, but why not truck it into a park or something?
SillyKilly
So it's comparing running of these in place with a diesel motor or sending a number of dump trucks full of snow to drive for 8hr a day
SillyKilly
This is obviously highly dependent on where snow would otherwise be removed to. In a small city it could be relatively close
SillyKilly
But for major urban areas you can be looking at moving literal tons of material 100s of kilometers by truck to dump in a field somewhere
SillyKilly
But park one of these bad boys on top of a storm drain and you can take potentially dozens of trucks off the roads, burning net less fuel
SillyKilly
The main reason they aren't very widely used or known about is they are pretty expensive and super niche. Fleets of dump trucks can be used
Nuttsy
Now I got myself wondering how fast diesel and electric cargo trains drop out of the equation.
SillyKilly
My research was based on Canada and northern USA so trains are sadly not in the equation :(
WeylandYutaniCorp
Or OR we stop relying on roads and cars for everything and build public transport and skip this step entirely
SillyKilly
Super down for this!
warrenwoodworks8888
What you do when there's no place left to put the snow
aluminumfalconjumpercables
Move because it’s too crowded ?
unfamiliarHorse
there is space, there are places left
Corrodias
It occurs to me that our city designs might have flaws.
khold90
The joys of high density combined with buildings that don't like 100+ tonnes of snow on their roof.
putcleverusernamehere
Exactly. La Guardia has these, but waaay bigger. Nowhere to put the snow
unfamiliarHorse
and europe hasn't .... strange
CgnCalling
Isn’t la guardia by the water?
Filanwizard
I am guessing they used to just push it off the end of that one runway that sticks into the water.
putcleverusernamehere
Probably, but you have to transport each bucketfull two miles round trip with the tractor, in a snow storm, at a busy airport
RenegadeBlob
Normally trucked away. This is 1 operator and probably less diesel.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Exactly, if it's taking less energy than driving it out of the city to dump, then it makes sense.
somnif
Specs on it are 18 tons of snow melted with 30-40 gallons of fuel. ...I have no idea how that compares to trucking.
donpat
extremely favorably
RenegadeBlob
Dump truck will get 5mpg in city at best. It's ~12 yards so ~ 3.25 tons of snow. 5.5 trips for 18 tons. 31.8 miles per trip with 35 gallons.
RenegadeBlob
somnif
Huh. Even accounting for the truck needed to haul this thing to a site it definitely is more fuel efficient (unless the bobcat is a guzzler)
ArcheiaSophiaMetatronsWife
This.... Our towns use side streets, parts of parking lots, empty lots and fields.... Etc. And pile it high
GravyEducation
To this day I see them, want to get out of my car and play on them
TheNLK
Even when that is considered, there comes a point where you are running out of places to put it. In Finland I know they sometimes 1/2
TheNLK
Have a snow dump so big it doesn't melt before the next winter starts.
rd77Runner
we do... some of them are stored on purpose though... to have early start on ski season, or to use on AC cooling during summer etc.
Tifandi
yup, when you dump it into the harbor.. you dump a whole lot of other crap with it
Kenbamazingbutprobablywontbe
Think about the salt content used around bodies of water. And what effect that might have on fresh water animals/insects
elmesito
The next question is, where does the water from the melted snow go?
Kenbamazingbutprobablywontbe
Probably right back into the water source. But hopefully its treated at least.
onlyhalfghost
there's fresh water in the Hudson?
badatediting
Not any more
Kenbamazingbutprobablywontbe
There are 100k lakes here where i live. Most landmasses have lots with roads nearby. The runoff is ecologically bad.
Kenbamazingbutprobablywontbe
Unless you think tons of salt and sand are good to just constantly introduce into an ecosystem that doesn't have it naturally.
Zapathasura
What's as big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shit-load of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces?
Sdougy
@ops mom boom
iplaytrombone
http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/default.asp?ID=54 burns diesel at 30-40 gal/hr which equates to 670-900 lbs of CO2/hr.
BlindGardener
I guess global warming is one way to melt snow
ROGUEdenied
Fuel consumption of 30-40 gallons/hr (max)
TheWarHymn
That's about 110-150 litres per hour, so it's worst than a Soviet apple cutting machine.
ROGUEdenied
or worst than your Mom's vintage fuel powered vibrator. Sorry I could not stop myself
spectrumchris
We ran a couple (briefly), it was more like 200L/hr, each...
spittleteets
They invented the AK-47 and decided that was enough engineering for a century.
950d0chief350
You mean the sturmgewehr 44 knockoff?
BlackCatCasper
SpongeBob SquarePants!
joot
Elon Musk?
Zapathasura
Musk would promise a machine that cuts apples into a million pieces, and then show a protoype that cuts an apple in half... some of the time
drosophilamelanogaster
And have a bunch of grown men falling over each other to suck his micropeen.
Zapathasura
DragonBjorne
You beat me to it you sommammabitch!
KarmannGeezer
My wife?
DragonBjorne
mai wiiiife
BidenduexMaximus
i'm a panty-melting machine and i run on pure alcohol
aloharamada
Are the panties in question yours and do you melt them with your hot liquor sharts?
1morebanforafreeshake
What? No. This dude is practically homeless and hasn’t owned a pair of panties in years. Too busy buying alcohol.
HighLordRegentofChaos
The GOP
ButterfaceTaintClown
my wife
HangingOnTheEdgeOfTomorrow
Wow, did they come out with a new model of juice loosener?
Zapathasura
There's a new model? Does it come with a free sample of Sun and Run?
DogHeadHunter
Your mom
ChalkCoatedDonut
For any oil tycoon or one of those loud gun crazy pickup truck owner, that's a real car for a real patriot.
yourcommentisstupid
That's a trailer...
ChalkCoatedDonut
Which movie is it?
BreandanJennings
Get it looks absurd, but in places with lots of snow, you run out of places to push it. Eventually, you have to melt it yourself
pseydtonne
1) Dump the fresh stuff into a nearby river or lake. 2) 2nd-round stuff with salt goes into big storm drain openings. Let the crud settle.
saalor
Then better planning is needed. Of we want a habitable planet we cannot make such excuses
Zapathasura
A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!
patotheduck
Do you want the window comrade?
Vengeraxe
Sounds like a Gnomish invention to me.
TwoDogsFucking
Good one!
v
evenelectronicbrainpancakecrystalelderly
"now you look like the minister for coal"
GadenKerensky
Apparently the actual minister of coal was a beefier dude respected by the miners because he was one.
evenelectronicbrainpancakecrystalelderly
that makes the casting a fantastic in-joke
LadyRex
The Chernobyl podcast explains why they took the creative liberties they did, I respect it. But also how interesting this story is by itself
The5lacker
It's very good joke comrade, but unfortunately I must now escort you to gulag.
thatiscomedygoldrightthere
That is comedy gold right there!
SixFingersOnMyRightHand
MeeepMorp
She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.
dualplains
"Our" joke.
DragonBjorne
The people’s joke.
Dunothar
Apothecarius
Hard as fuck street ice that won't melt for months is my guess.
LeumisRichardson
My guess is that anywhere to dump the snow is so far off that the gas used to transport the snow is greater than the energy used to run this
RabidDingo
You should see the snow clearing process at a major airport like Denver. They have at least 6 that clear taxiways.
YouRadicalizedMe
Wtf lads?!?!?
rmsrmsrms38
We have these at my work. Literally no where to put the snow and we can't leave it. Gotta melt it. Cheaper than moving the -->
rmsrmsrms38
Snow to another location via truck. Our melters also don't look like dumpster fires either.
saalor
Then come up with a better solution. People like this is why the environment is fucked.
rmsrmsrms38
Come up with a better solution? You think we didn't try before we invested nearly $2M in these machines? Lol. K.
imgjim
Yeah the burners are not running right at all on this one. She's running rich with all that black smoke. Should be smokeless, only steam
Magjee
Might be really dirty snow?
imgjim
the snow doesn't contact the flame. water from melted snow is heated as it's pumped through a boiler tube array and melts more snow
Init1alDee
I do wonder if this is more fuel efficient than trucking the snow to a field/whatnot.
zouwia
Depends on how far you need to truck, on urban centers melting can be more efficient.
SenfinaZeit
Depends on far you have to drive, but the energy consumption on snow melters is no joke.
mikeatike
Probably uses less energy than using a dump truck to move it away.
saalor
No, but probably cheaper. Which dosent makes it right. Fuels is still to cheap if people is doing this.
mikeatike
You realize that trucks run on the same fuel as this?
saalor
I also realise how much energy is needed to melt snow. We cannot be this wasteful with energy anymore.
mikeatike
Actually now that I think of it, it's probably not the cost of fuel they are trying to save. It's the cost of the labor of the drivers to
acornsagainstssquirrels
Actually less energy than trucking it out like they would normally have to do, and waayy less emissions, land, and vehicles on the road
iplaytrombone
This machine burns 30-40gal/hr diesel. Semis average 8. Sauce: googling and the melter’s website.
Nuttsy
That for a round trip, or one-way?
iplaytrombone
The melter’s manufacturer said 30-40 gal of diesel fuel per hour. Google said a diesel semi traveling down the road uses 8 gal per hour.
iplaytrombone
Obv there’s variation in the truck based on load, fuel efficiency, speed, etc., but still that’s a pretty stark difference.
Nuttsy
Alright, so that's 16 for an idealised round trip, at halved capacity. Pushing 32ish, before we even nuked fuel efficiency on low speeds.
iplaytrombone
Also, the melter’s website emphasized its purpose being removing snow from the top level of parking ramps.