The Ural Plant of Deicing Materials (UZPM), a leading Russian manufacturer of modern anti-ice products under the Bionord brand, has presented a full-scale retail line of agents at the XXII International Exhibition ‘Housing and Utility Services of Russia’. The forum took place in St. Petersburg and brought together over 8,000 delegates and specialists from 11 countries, having become the key venue for discussing the current issues of the housing and public utilities sector and sharing best practices.
The forum also hosted a roundtable ‘Cities and Roads: Innovations in the Maintenance and Comprehensive Cleaning of Transport Infrastructure,’ organized by the National Association for Winter Maintenance of Infrastructure and Transport Facilities. Evgeny Nemirovsky, Advisor to UZPM General Director, participated in the roundtable, discussing the main challenges in the winter and off-season maintenance of cities infrastructure facilities and highlighting current solutions.
As Evgeny Nemirovsky noted, today, in the conditions of climate changes, operating organizations face three key tasks: ensuring effective maintenance of facilities in fluctuating temperature regimes, maintaining safety in pedestrian zones, and servicing complex engineering infrastructure. UZPM solutions take all these challenges into account and are designed for effective performance under various conditions. The products are intended for the winter and off-season maintenance of city roads, sidewalks, airports, bridges, and other infrastructure facilities. For nearly 20 years, the company has been developing and manufacturing deicing materials, has a modern production complex, laboratory facilities, and a multi-stage system for environmental safety and quality control.
“Winter maintenance is always an individual process. We develop our agents based on the analysis of meteorological data and the infrastructure characteristics of each specific city. The Bionord product line provides solutions for highways, engineering structures, and pedestrian zones for any winter weather scenario,” noted the Advisor to UZPM General Director.
Bionord agents fully comply with GOST requirements. Their corrosion activity rate stands at 0.4, which is significantly lower compared to the previous-generation materials like rock salt, where the indicator reaches 1.1. The products have successfully passed the state environmental appraisal and hold a complete package of permit documentation.
A key advantage is the solubility of the agents. As opposed to sand-salt mixes, which do not dissolve and cause additional muddy slush on the roads as well as air dust pollution, Bionord dissolves completely without residue. It does not pollute the environment or clog storm sewage systems.
The application of modern agents receives positive feedback from the public. For instance, according to the data from the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre and the Scientific and Practical Centre for Emergency Medical Care, resident satisfaction with the quality of winter maintenance increased six times over four seasons of using innovative ice control solutions.
During the Forum, several thousand people visited the stand of the Ural Plant of Deicing Materials. Among them was a delegation of St. Petersburg government officials who showed particular interest in the new agent format – liquid Bionord. The product retains the core advantages of the product line: it incorporates biophilic and anti-corrosion additives that eliminate aggressive impacts on city infrastructure elements, metal structures, and soil. The liquid format ensures uniform distribution across the treated surface and noticeably increases cost-efficiency with an application rate 1.5 to 2 times lower than that of rock salt. For a city like St. Petersburg with its unique cultural heritage and historical monuments, this solution looks especially appealing as it combines anti-ice effect with gentle care for the architecture. UZPM representatives expressed their readiness to provide all necessary additional information and, upon request, to supply liquid Bionord to the city.
Outdated methods, such as sand-salt mixes and halite, no longer meet the requirements of a modern metropolis. Not only do they fail to solve the problem of icing during sharp temperature fluctuations, but they also cause severe environmental damage: in springtime, sand-salt mixes turn into airborne dust, while salt permeates soil to the depth of up to 1.5 metres, requiring costly remediation in the future. Besides, previous-generation agents accelerate the corrosion of metal structures and damage cultural heritage sites. In these conditions, the use of advanced ice control solutions becomes an absolute necessity for effective and safe winter maintenance, and properly selected materials are the key to success for a clean, modern metropolis with a rich cultural code,” noted Evgeny Nemirovsky.
Today, Bionord is supplied to more than 50 Russian regions, including key infrastructure facilities, and is included in the ‘100 Best Goods of Russia’ list.