news 19.5.2025

Towards More Sustainable Road De-icing at the YITHackathon

At the YITHackathon held in Jyväskylä on 08.05.2025, organised by the bioeconomy business accelerator BioBoosters by Jamk, new, more ecological alternatives to traditional road salt for de-icing were sought internationally. Three interesting solutions from the Nordic countries were selected and introduced, from which YIT was looking for a partner for further development. The winner of the hackathon was Kemion Ltd, a green chemistry expert company from Ylöjärvi, with their plant-based and biodegradable liquid raw material that can be combined with existing road salt, thus reducing chloride emissions that cause corrosion to vehicles and road infrastructure.

YIThackathon winner kemion

Road de-icing has sparked much discussion from groundwater contamination to the harmful effects on dogs' paws. Road maintenance is a complex issue that requires balancing ecological sustainability and economic viability. Even though ecological solutions are already available on the market, their price or scalability does not yet meet the needs of road traffic. Additionally, the suitability of products for use with existing maintenance equipment poses challenges. 

YIT, which handles e.g. road maintenance, is actively seeking new, more sustainable solutions. Previous development projects include finding a new bio-based solution for road dust control, which is also problematic for road users. The latest development direction for YIT is seeking more sustainable solutions for de-icing. Currently, road salt is used for de-icing, which has the downside of contaminating groundwater and causing corrosion to vehicles and road infrastructure. However, road salt is currently the most sensible solution due to its low cost and wide availability. In Finland, 120,000 tonnes of road salt are used, covering over 10,000 kilometres of road network. 

YITHackathon Sought a Replacement for Road Salt 

In their speeches at the YITHackathon, Jarkko Pirinen, an expert from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, and Timo Paavilainen, YIT's Technical Director of Maintenance, discussed the balance between ecological sustainability and economic viability in road maintenance. There are a few ecologically sustainable de-icing products on the market, but the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, ELY Centres, and cities that commission road maintenance cannot afford to completely replace traditional road salt due to cost reasons. New products require testing for de-icing effectiveness, safety, and environmental impact. De-icing is an important part of road safety. 

The YITHackathon aimed to find new, more ecological alternatives to traditional road salt internationally. The event was held in Jyväskylä on 08.05.2025, organised by the bioeconomy business accelerator BioBoosters by Jamk. Three interesting solutions from the Nordic countries were selected for the event from which two were from Finland and one from Sweden. 

The solution from Kemion Ltd, a green chemistry expert company from Ylöjärvi, was selected as the most interesting innovation by the hackathon jury, YIT, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, and Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. 

The solution is a plant-based and biodegradable liquid raw material that can be combined with road salt. Kemion's product significantly reduces the release of chloride emissions into the soil and reduces the corrosion of vehicles and road infrastructure. The solution allows reducing the use of road salt in the future. 

YIT and Kemion continue to test and further develop the winning solution together

Finding this solution is the first concrete step towards more sustainable road maintenance in Finland. As a result of the hackathon, YIT is launching a development project with Kemion to test the product in practice. Expectations for the solution are high, and the hope is to have a new product available for maintenance use in the near future. 

"Kemion's solution does not replace traditional salt, but it helps reduce the harmful effects of chlorides. The solution met our expectations for an environmentally friendly circular economy product, which, when further developed, can also be an economically sustainable alternative, for example, to salt solutions. The solution requires testing and further development, which we have already agreed upon with Kemion," said Timo Paavilainen, YIT Corporation. 

"The hackathon event was an interesting and well-executed concept, full of fruitful discussions between expert parties. We are excited to explore and test our solution at the next level together with YIT. The test implementation of the solution and a deep understanding of the requirements will help in the further development of the solution," said Seidi Helanterä, Kemion Ltd. 

BioBoosters by Jamk 

The innovation competitions, or hackathons, facilitated by BioBoosters by Jamk help domestic and global corporations to find new, more sustainable solutions from a multidisciplinary and international startup field. Hackathons seek win-win situations where the problem owner (corporation) finds the solution they need, and the startup company (or other entity) offering the solution finds a new major customer or market. Hackathon assignments typically relate to the use of new biomaterials, further utilisation of side streams, or resource efficiency through digital methods. Since 2020, BioBoosters by Jamk has facilitated nearly thirty hackathons. Read more about Bioboosters from here. 

Lisätietoja

Riikka Kumpulainen

Vanhempi asiantuntija, Senior Advisor
Biotalousinstituutti, Institute of Bioeconomy
Teknologia, School of Technology
+358505759454

Keywords

RDI
RDI Main News
Institute of Bioeconomy
BioBoosters
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