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Old 02-25-16, 11:31 AM   #17
Mobile Master Tech
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Snowmelt! Thanks for the tip, Jeff! Anything that is cheap enough to throw on the ground at the scale airports need can't be too expensive to get a half ton of. I will check your meltsnow source, as they deliver also.

Aviation story: A CEO and his pilot are flying to a short, icy runway with no good alternate airports in a rented jet without the advanced safety features their normal corporate jet has. Both realize the dicey situation:

CEO: "Captain, does this plane have thrust reversers?"
Pilot: "No, sir."
"Captain, does this plane have antilock brakes?"
"No, sir."
Pause......"Captain, does this plane have any more Scotch?"


Impurities, including intentional ones, seem to be the way to get SAT to not supercool. Adding a few percent extra water and gelling with superabsorbent polymer (SAP), like what is used in diapers, seems to be the way to control phase separation. Otherwise, you get layers of crystals at the bottom and water at the top, stopping SAT's usefulness.

If I use SAT, at least it would be easy to remove the bottles of it from my tank every couple years to heat/shake up/reenergize the mix, since SAT is heavier than water so no mechanical restraints will be needed in the tank. I would like to hear if anyone has practical experience with SAT as a PCM so I can use whatever methods make it least troubleprone.

Mechanical mixing seems to completely eliminate any problems with SAT, but then complexity goes up.
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