Perma-Zyme is a powerful enzyme soil stabilizer. Since enzymes are relatively new compared to traditional soil stabilizers, people question their capabilities. In this article, we’ll answer two of the most common questions people ask us:
With this knowledge, you’ll better understand how Perma-Zyme can fit into your plans for soil stabilization and dust control.
The short answer is, “No, but…”
We don’t manufacture Perma-Zyme to be a dust suppressant. It’s a soil stabilizer that hardens and strengthens unpaved roads, paved roads, equipment pads, and other areas to save you time and money on maintenance. In fact, many of our customers in Michigan report that they go from spending around $5,800 per year per mile on road maintenance to $0 when they use Perma-Zyme.
But because Perma-Zyme is such a powerful soil stabilizer, it does help reduce dust. We like to think of that as a bonus to its primary purpose of stabilizing your soil, stabilizing your budget, and stabilizing your future.
To explain why a dust-reducing soil stabilizer isn’t technically a dust suppressant, let’s go over the difference between the two. Then, we’ll explore Perma-Zyme’s role.
Soil stabilization is the process of changing soil’s physical or chemical properties so it can stand up to a particular job. It can include using chemicals to strengthen soil to support the weight of heavy vehicle traffic or using geotextiles and aggregate to hold soil in place so that it won’t wash away.
Perma-Zyme stabilizes soil by hardening and strengthening it. The enzymes in Perma-Zyme bond the soil’s clay or limestone particles together, locking them into place and creating a hard, concrete-like surface. This surface lasts 10 years or more for gravel county roads and up to five years for heavy industrial haul roads, with little to no maintenance. So, your yearly maintenance costs could drop as low as $0 when you stabilize your soil with Perma-Zyme. (Now you see why we say it stabilizes your budget and your future, too!)
Dust suppression is the process of reducing or eliminating dust. Road dust suppression is especially crucial because road dust poses significant safety hazards to drivers, as well as nearby communities and ecosystems.
Dust is made of tiny, dry soil particles, so dust suppression is a specific type of soil stabilization. Many dust suppressant products are only effective for stabilizing dust particles, not ordinary soil particles. However, a few dust suppressants, such as chlorides, have mild to moderate capabilities to stabilize other soil particles by forming a crust over the soil’s surface.
Some properties that make Perma-Zyme an effective soil stabilizer also help reduce dust on gravel roads, haul roads, equipment pads, solar farms, and more.
Perma-Zyme is highly effective at stabilizing clay soils, which have the smallest particle size of all soil types. These tiny particles dry quickly and are light enough to blow away easily, so clay roads are often extremely dusty. Mixing Perma-Zyme into clay soil bonds its particles together to strengthen the soil. That also makes its particles less likely to escape into the atmosphere as dust. So, the Perma-Zyme treated area will experience less dust than if you left the soil loose and untreated.
That’s why you’ll often hear us say that Perma-Zyme significantly reduces dust, even though it’s not technically a dust suppressant product. Our customers find that Perma-Zyme may help suppress dust for up to two years after the initial application.
Since it’s made to stabilize soil, Perma-Zyme’s soil stabilization properties last much longer. As we mentioned, soil that you stabilize with Perma-Zyme can last up to five years for heavy industrial haul roads or 10+ years for gravel county roads with little to no maintenance.
You may be able to replace other dust suppression solutions with Perma-Zyme, depending on your goals, budget, location, and other factors. You may also find that using Perma-Zyme in conjunction with other methods proves most effective for your project.
Many people use water, gravel, or chlorides for dust suppression, so they want to know how Perma-Zyme compares to these solutions. That’s difficult to do. Since Perma-Zyme is a soil stabilizer, it’s a different type of product than these dust suppressants—making a one-to-one comparison challenging. However, it is possible. We’ve put together this infographic to help show you how dust suppressants and Perma-Zyme perform.
As you can see, Perma-Zyme has several benefits over traditional dust suppressants. On top of that—and more importantly—it offers significant soil stabilization benefits as well.
Perma-Zyme creates a hard, water-resistant surface that:
One way to achieve optimal dust suppression and soil stabilization is to pair Perma-Zyme with a product that’s intended as a dust suppressant. For instance, some of our customers use Perma-Zyme for soil stabilization, then apply gravel or chlorides a couple years later when Perma-Zyme’s dust suppressant qualities begin to wear off.
Although Perma-Zyme is a soil stabilizer, some of our customers use it primarily for dust control purposes. If you choose to do the same, it’s crucial to set realistic expectations for how it will perform. Here are three things to keep in mind.
Remember, Perma-Zyme’s primary purpose is to bind, harden, and strengthen soil. When we talk about how Perma-Zyme will perform on various projects, we are referring to its performance as a soil stabilizer. So, if you choose to use it as a dust suppressant, it may perform differently or only partially replace other dust suppression products you’ve used in the past.
This is one of the seven biggest myths about Perma-Zyme. When people hear that it significantly reduces dust, they often think it won’t leave a single speck of dust on their road. However, you’ll still see some dust as traffic and wind carry it onto the road from untreated areas like ditches and driveways. Additionally, traffic causes normal wear and tear that can loosen a thin layer of dust from the top of the treated surface.
As we mentioned earlier, Perma-Zyme’s dust suppression capabilities wear off quicker than its soil stabilization capabilities. They may last from a few months to up to two years. On the bright side, applying Perma-Zyme every two years still requires less labor and is often more cost-effective than applying other products every two to three months.
Keeping these expectations in mind will help you know what to expect and better calculate the costs of applying Perma-Zyme instead of or in addition to traditional solutions.
You should use Perma-Zyme as part of your dust control plan if that’s what works best for your project. Yes, we make and sell Perma-Zyme, but we’d never tell you to buy a product just because we say so. Instead, we want you to be confident that you’ve found the most cost-effective, longest-lasting, and safest solution for your community and crews.
Many of our customers have successfully used Perma-Zyme for dust suppression alone or in addition to other solutions. You can do the same, and you’ll see even more success when you use Perma-Zyme for its intended purpose: stabilizing your soil to save money and labor on road maintenance.
