Maine’s Portland International Jetport (PWM) this winter became the first airport in the U.S. to use 100 percent recycled Type I deicing fluid to meet its cold-weather operational needs.
With its location in the far Northeast, the airport is no stranger to harsh conditions, and the genesis of this environmentally friendly approach was in 2008 as the authorities were planning a $75 million development project, which included expansion of the terminal, a new parking garage and runway work. As part of the funding requirements, the airport was required to analyze how it would dispose of used deicing fluid going forward.
At some airports, the propylene glycol-based solution has been released directly into nearby large bodies of water or the local sanitary sewer system for treatment, if the system can handle it. The non-toxic fluid is the same used in winterizing RVs and watercraft, but it does have its drawbacks. Because it depletes oxygen “if you put a large amount in a small waterway, it would use up all the oxygen that would otherwise be used by fish and other organisms,” said airport director Paul Bradbury.
Another option is diverting the waste effluent into large holding ponds, where it is aerated until it breaks down enough to be safe to release either into the sewer system or directly into waterways. Such ponds can take up valuable real estate, an option that wasn’t available to land-constrained PWM, according to Bradbury. Instead, the airport looked for industry solutions and found a Canadian firm named Inland Technologies International, which had concentrator technology that employs mechanical vapor recompression to take the used effluent, which was typically between 2 and 10 percent glycol, and “boil” it down to a 50 percent solution that could then have some value to industry.
The airport built a central deicing pad with trench drains that would carry the waste fluids to 500,000-gallon underground cisterns. “We issued a competitive RFP for a deicing fluid processing vendor as part of this development program. Inland was selected through this competitive process and ultimately commenced operations in 2010,” Bradbury noted.
Inland then installed near the pad a facility consisting of several glycol concentrators and a two-stage reverse osmosis membrane system that would consolidate the effluent to a 50 percent solution and eliminate ramp contaminants such as dirt and oil. Initial plans called for the company and the airport to simply sell that to other industries, but Inland later applied its distillation unit, originally used for recycling ethylene glycol, which is used for deicing in Canada, to handle the propylene glycol. Demonstrated at the Portland facility, it allowed the company to refine the concentrated glycol even further, yielding end-stream Type I deicing fluid, as well as lavatory antifreeze.
Waste Fluid In, Deicing Fluid Out
In 2016, Inland unveiled a $2 million expansion to its facility, enabling it to operate year-round and maintain a steady output of the products. Roger Langille, president and chief executive officer of the Inland Group of Companies, has been involved with the project since inception. “The partnership we have with Portland Jetport is one we are extremely proud of,” he said. “The model is based on open communications with the goal of understanding and meeting the environmental and operating needs of the airport and the region.”
In addition to collecting the waste fluid from PWM, Inland retrieves it in varying concentrations from 20 airports, as far away as Newark Liberty and Washington-Dulles, where it also operates a consolidation facility. The glycol mixtures are then either sold locally to industry or trucked to Portland for further processing. Inland is agnostic when it comes to sourcing propylene glycol, collecting it from a local brewery, which uses it in part of the brewing process, and even from the heating plant of an office complex across from the airport.
In all, Inland has processed more than six million gallons of fluid since it began operations at PWM. Bradbury explained that the effluent is drawn from the massive holding tanks at a measured pace to ensure a continual flow throughout the year. The goal is for the tanks to be drawn down by November and the start of the deicing season. This winter is the first the airport has relied solely on the recycled fluid, made from last year’s waste. The facility can now produce approximately 10,000 gallons of pure glycol a week and can blend up to 50,000 gallons a day of Type I ADF in case of extended storms. The site, the first of its kind in the country, is certified to produce SafeTemp Type I ADF, as well as aircraft lavatory antifreeze.The newly remanufactured ADF is stored in tanks near the deicing pad, to fill the fleet of deicers operated by Northeast Air, one of two FBOs on the field.
“What we use does vary by event because temperature determines the concentrate that we’re spraying,” Bradbury told AIN. “Your normal deicing fluid is roughly an 80 percent pure propylene product and then it might be cut 50/50 again with water depending on the temperature of the snow event.”
Other customers for the recycled fluid are New York’s Westchester County Airport and Boston Logan.
Bradbury noted his airport has a 10-year agreement in place with Inland to provide environmental services, and gets a portion of the revenues generated. He predicts the company will eventually open another processing plant at a more southerly airport, allowing the two locations to divide the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions.
For PWM, which sees approximately 70,000 operations a year, and last year handled nearly two million passengers, the partnership with Inland is just part of its environmental consciousness. Its new terminal, which opened in 2012, was one of the first in the country to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Status. “Certainly it's pushed our green or sustainable side of the Portland International Jetport,” said Bradbury. “I know our passengers appreciate that, and so do the people in the region.”
Maine’s Portland International Jetport (PWM) this winter became the first airport in the U.S. to use 100 percent recycled Type I deicing fluid to meet its cold-weather operational needs.
With its location in the far Northeast, the airport is no stranger to harsh conditions, and the genesis of this environmentally friendly approach was in 2008 as the authorities were planning a $75 million development project, which included expansion of the terminal, a new parking garage and runway work. As part of the funding requirements, the airport was required to analyze how it would dispose of used deicing fluid going forward.
At some airports, the propylene glycol-based solution has been released directly into nearby large bodies of water or the local sanitary sewer system for treatment, if the system can handle it. The non-toxic fluid is the same used in winterizing RVs and watercraft, but it does have its drawbacks. Because it depletes oxygen “if you put a large amount in a small waterway, it would use up all the oxygen that would otherwise be used by fish and other organisms,” said airport director Paul Bradbury.
Another option is diverting the waste effluent into large holding ponds, where it is aerated until it breaks down enough to be safe to release either into the sewer system or directly into waterways. Such ponds can take up valuable real estate, an option that wasn’t available to land-constrained PWM, according to Bradbury. Instead, the airport looked for industry solutions and found a Canadian firm named Inland Technologies International, which had concentrator technology that employs mechanical vapor recompression to take the used effluent, which was typically between 2 and 10 percent glycol, and “boil” it down to a 50 percent solution that could then have some value to industry.
The airport built a central deicing pad with trench drains that would carry the waste fluids to 500,000-gallon underground cisterns. “We issued a competitive RFP for a deicing fluid processing vendor as part of this development program. Inland was selected through this competitive process and ultimately commenced operations in 2010,” Bradbury noted.
Inland then installed near the pad a facility consisting of several glycol concentrators and a two-stage reverse osmosis membrane system that would consolidate the effluent to a 50 percent solution and eliminate ramp contaminants such as dirt and oil. Initial plans called for the company and the airport to simply sell that to other industries, but Inland later applied its distillation unit, originally used for recycling ethylene glycol, which is used for deicing in Canada, to handle the propylene glycol. Demonstrated at the Portland facility, it allowed the company to refine the concentrated glycol even further, yielding end-stream Type I deicing fluid, as well as lavatory antifreeze.
Waste Fluid In, Deicing Fluid Out
In 2016, Inland unveiled a $2 million expansion to its facility, enabling it to operate year-round and maintain a steady output of the products. Roger Langille, president and chief executive officer of the Inland Group of Companies, has been involved with the project since inception. “The partnership we have with Portland Jetport is one we are extremely proud of,” he said. “The model is based on open communications with the goal of understanding and meeting the environmental and operating needs of the airport and the region.”
In addition to collecting the waste fluid from PWM, Inland retrieves it in varying concentrations from 20 airports, as far away as Newark Liberty and Washington-Dulles, where it also operates a consolidation facility. The glycol mixtures are then either sold locally to industry or trucked to Portland for further processing. Inland is agnostic when it comes to sourcing propylene glycol, collecting it from a local brewery, which uses it in part of the brewing process, and even from the heating plant of an office complex across from the airport.
In all, Inland has processed more than six million gallons of fluid since it began operations at PWM. Bradbury explained that the effluent is drawn from the massive holding tanks at a measured pace to ensure a continual flow throughout the year. The goal is for the tanks to be drawn down by November and the start of the deicing season. This winter is the first the airport has relied solely on the recycled fluid, made from last year’s waste. The facility can now produce approximately 10,000 gallons of pure glycol a week and can blend up to 50,000 gallons a day of Type I ADF in case of extended storms. The site, the first of its kind in the country, is certified to produce SafeTemp Type I ADF, as well as aircraft lavatory antifreeze.The newly remanufactured ADF is stored in tanks near the deicing pad, to fill the fleet of deicers operated by Northeast Air, one of two FBOs on the field.
“What we use does vary by event because temperature determines the concentrate that we’re spraying,” Bradbury told AIN. “Your normal deicing fluid is roughly an 80 percent pure propylene product and then it might be cut 50/50 again with water depending on the temperature of the snow event.”
Other customers for the recycled fluid are New York’s Westchester County Airport and Boston Logan.
Bradbury noted his airport has a 10-year agreement in place with Inland to provide environmental services, and gets a portion of the revenues generated. He predicts the company will eventually open another processing plant at a more southerly airport, allowing the two locations to divide the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions.
For PWM, which sees approximately 70,000 operations a year, and last year handled nearly two million passengers, the partnership with Inland is just part of its environmental consciousness. Its new terminal, which opened in 2012, was one of the first in the country to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Status. “Certainly it's pushed our green or sustainable side of the Portland International Jetport,” said Bradbury. “I know our passengers appreciate that, and so do the people in the region.”