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National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Dec. 17 announced that commercial applications now are available for an anti-icing fluid designed to boost winter safety and reliability on freight and passenger railroads, as well as bridges, streets, runways and ships.
Commercially produced under a NASA license by Canton, Ohio-based Midwest Industrial Supply Inc., the fluid is designed to prevent ice and snow build-up on tracks, or melt snow and ice already visible on rails.
The fluid, which can be applied with a pressure sprayer, brush or by pouring it on affected areas, forms a thin film on tracks to help protect against re-freezing.
NASA researchers in the 1990s developed the environmentally friendly fluid — which is neither an acid nor base, and won't corrode steel — for aerospace applications.