More Efficient Way To Defrost Cars Using Electricity To “Zap” Ice Without Heat

More Efficient Way To Defrost Cars Using Electricity To “Zap” Ice Without Heat

More Efficient Way To Defrost Cars Using Electricity To “Zap” Ice Without Heat Associate Professor Jonathan Boreyko – credit, Alex Parrish / Virginia Tech / SWNS There are large swaths of America where in order to have a safe drive into work, one has to start their car even before their coffee machine. Heating up a car and running the defrosters is a hugely energy intensive process, but researchers at Virginia Polytechnical Institute believe they’ve found a new and improved method for defrosting. Mechanical engineering Professor Jonathan Boreyko’s philosophy is to combat ice by exploiting its own physics instead of using heat, which is energy-intensive, or chemicals, which pollute the environment. The team’s previous work leveraged the small amount of voltage that naturally exists within frost to polarize a nearby water film, creating an electric field that could detach microscopic ice crystals. By increasing the voltage the team developed a new method called “electrostatic defrosting” (EDF…