# High Dimension Granite Pavement Bio-Desalination Practical Implementation
## 3 Results
### Optimal High Scale Application Protocol Determination
Due to all of the high in situ performance difficulties observed, warm 2% agar was discarded for high dimension bio-desalination, and ground 2% agar and Nevek(r) were tested next. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & & & & & & & & & \\ \cline{3-10}  & \multirow{2}{*}{\
\begin{tabular}{c} **Preparation** \\ **Difficulties** \\ \end{tabular} } & **Supporting Equipment** & **Time-Consuming** & **Efficiency** & **Complexity** & **Treatment** & **Costs \&/m\^{2} (d)** \\  & & **Equipment** & **(1)** & **(2)** & **(3)** & **Area/Day** & **Material (5)** & **Personnel (6)** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Delivery system} & Warm 2\% agar & very high & very high & very high & medium & 15 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 11.91 & EUR 104.98 \\  & Ground 2\% & low & low & medium & very high & low & 30 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 7.42 & EUR 18.37 \\  & Nevek & low & low & low & medium & low & 30 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 70.66 & EUR 14.00 \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{
\begin{tabular}{c} **Thermic** \\ **systems** \\ \end{tabular} } & Infrared heat & high & high & medium & very low & high & 15 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 3.54 & EUR 2.53 \\  & lamps & high & high & low & high & 15 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 7.40 & EUR 1.56 \\  & Heating & medium & medium & medium & very high & medium & 25 m\({}^{2}\) & EUR 13.49 & EUR 0.98 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: High scale onsite bio-desalination application protocol evaluation. Figure 2: Image showing the delivery systems and thermic systems tested. **(A)**: warm 2% agar; **(B)**: ground 2% agar; **(C)**: Nevek®; **(D)**: infrared heat lamps; **(E)**: air heater; **(F)**: heating electric mat. Ground 2% agar significantly reduces the high dimension, in situ performance difficulties because it is directly applied to the pavement without any in situ preparations (agar preparation is completed previously in the laboratory). There is no need for in situ supporting equipment, and application and removal is easy and with medium time-consumption. Higher areas, up to 30 m\({}^{2}\), can be treated in a day, and economic costs are reduced both in terms of material and personnel costs (0.84 h for 1 m\({}^{2}\)). Similar performance occurs with Nevek(r), which also has low preparation difficulties (because it is applied directly from the original package), low supporting equipment, low time-consumption, and low application and removal complexity, also allowing for a 30 m\({}^{2}\) treatment area in a day. Economic costs are higher because, even though the personnel costs are low (0.64 h for 1 m\({}^{2}\)), the material costs are very high as 3.3 kg of product is needed to bio-desalinate 1 m\({}^{2}\). In regard to the delivery system efficiency, both warm and ground agar showed very high efficiency by supplying high (100% humidity) and homogeneous water to the surface (as needed for the microorganisms to clean). Instead, Nevek(r), after the 48 h treatment time, showed excessive drying and the presence of significant cracks that increased when thermic systems were added (see Figure 2C). This could interfere with the correct and homogeneous biocleaning process and even complicate the removal. In order to avoid this, a thicker layer of Nevek(r) could be added, which implies an increase in economic costs. These preliminary in situ delivery system trials allowed us to discard the use of warm 2% agar for high dimension surfaces bio-desalination application due to the high in situ performance difficulties observed, and to discard Nevek(r) due to the high economic costs and excessive drying. Ground 2% agar was selected as the best performing delivery system. In addition, three thermic systems were tested: infrared heat lamps, an air heater, and a heating electric mat (Figure 2D, Figure 2E, Figure 2F, respectively). Infrared heat lamps were selected because they have previously been used in biocleaning studies [8; 13; 15; 16; 17]. The other thermic systems, tested here for the first time, were selected due to their potential ability to warm high dimension areas.