A review on passive and active anti-icing and de-icing technologies

Icing introduces significant damage to aviation and renewable energy installations. High voltage transmission lines, wind turbine blades, and airplane and helicopter blades often suffer from icing phenomenon, which causes severe energy losses and impairs aerodynamic performance. There are a significant number of different studies proposing de-icing and anti-icing techniques. It is noticeable that the vast majority of these methods are oriented towards a particular area, and their adaptation to other areas is problematic. These methods often use various technologies, have different specifications, and sometimes lack clear interpretation of efficiency. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the most common de-icing and anti-icing technologies and identifies their benefits and limitations. Two major groups of de-icing and anti-icing methods were covered: passive and active methods. Among the passive methods, chemical methods, biochemical methods, and paint coatings, which either weaken the ice adhesion or shift the freezing point of a surface, were discussed in detail. The reviewed active methods include the hot air method, resistive method, infrared method, and microwave heaters, as well as the expulsive method, pneumatic method, water jet method, and high-power ultrasonic de-icing as mechanical methods. Passive methods lead to a limited performance under severe freezing, are often too expensive to cover large surfaces, and their effectiveness degrades over time, while active techniques cause high energy consumption and require intervention in the structure’s design, and they are also more effective and provide a faster response, especially during severe freezing. It can be noted that various parameters impact the effectiveness of de-icing and anti-icing techniques for different applications. These parameters are limited to physical and chemical properties of the aimed engineering surfaces, environmental factors, severity of icing (clear, mixed, rime, crystal, etc.), size of the affected area and functionality of the whole energy system and should be thoroughly investigated and be taken into consideration in order to achieve a feasible, effective and economical de-icing or anti-icing approach for each application.