01626676

Component

Landslide is one of the major threats to the highway and railways transportation. As an example, Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) spends over $40M each year to remediate problems caused by landslides. Many of these landslides occur as a result of low-strength soils and the occurrence of ground water. Electrochemical stabilization is a method for strengthening clay soils with no mechanical disturbance to the slope. Electrochemical treatment, however, demands a large amount of power. Traditionally, the electricity is provided via a mobile fuel-based generator. The fuel consumption causes high cost and negative environmental consequences due to pollutant gas release and carbon dioxide emission which is the major factor that restricts the development of electrochemical stabilization techniques for the past decades. The usage of renewable energy sources will play a significant role in the sustainable development of the future energy strategy. Renewable energy sources such as the wind energy have been developed significantly over the past decades, which provides a promising and sustainable alternative way to driving electrochemical treatment. By installing small scale mobile wind turbine, green electricity can be used for onsite electrochemical stabilization of landslides. This paper uses the life cycle assessment, comparing greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuel-based generator and a research utility scale 100 kW wind turbine on electrochemical treatment. The result shows that electrochemical soil improvements using a renewable generator are much more sustainable than the traditional gasoline generator. It, therefore, is a promising and environmentally friendly alternative for electrochemical treatment of landslide.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC60 Standing Committee on Resource Conservation and Recovery. Alternate title: Sustainable Landslide Mitigation with Renewable Wind Energy.

01618707

17-05342

English

12p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Electric generators; Electrochemical processes; Landslides; Life cycle analysis; Pollutants; Renewable energy sources; Soil stabilization; Sustainable development; Turbines; Wind power generation

Energy; Environment; Geotechnology; Highways

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-05342

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:06PM