Road Salt & Rock Salt

De-icing of roads has traditionally been done with salt, spread by snowplows or dump trucks designed to spread it, along with sand and gravel, on slick roads. Sodium chloride (rock salt) is normally used, as it is inexpensive and readily available in large quantities for commercial use. However, since salt water still freezes at -18°C or 0°F, it is of no help when the temperature falls below this point. It also has a strong tendency to cause corrosion, rusting the steel used in most vehicles and the rebar in concrete bridges. More recent snowmelters use other salts, such as calcium chloride and magnesium chloride, which not only depress the freezing point of water to a much lower temperature, but also produce an exothermic reaction. They are somewhat safer for concrete sidewalks, but excess should still be removed.

While salt was once a scarce commodity in history, industrialized production has now made salt plentiful. Approximately 51% of world output is now used by cold countries to de-ice roads in winter, both in grit bins and spread by winter service vehicles by companies such as KSD Salt. Calcium chloride is preferred over sodium chloride, since CaCl2 releases energy upon forming a solution with water, heating any ice or snow it is in contact with.

It also lowers the freezing point, depending on the concentration. NaCl does not release heat upon solution; however, it does lower the freezing point. Calcium chloride is thought to be more environmentally friendly than sodium chloride when used to de-ice roads, however a drawback is that it tends to promote corrosion (of vehicles) more so than sodium chloride. NaCl is also more readily available and does not have any special handling or storage requirements, unlike calcium chloride. The salinity (S) of water is measured as grams salt per kilogram of water, and the freezing temperatures are as follows.

The services we can provide to commercial customers include:

• Fixed contracts to supply a guaranteed quantity of de-icing rock salt over the winter months
• 30 day accounts. Particularly effective for larger businesses
• Neatly stacked Pallets of 25KG bags
• Secure required amount of de-icing salt before winter arrives and we will store and deliver the salt as and when you need it
• High quality pure white rock salt. The cleaner alternative to traditional brown rock salt
• No muddy surfaces and costly cleaning bills, often the case with brown rock salt
• Fast, efficient delivery anywhere in the UK