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Jetport First: Using Recycled De-Icing Fluid

PORTLAND (NEWSCENTERMaine)-- Today's weather created a headache for travelers. Several flights were canceled. But the problem wasn't on *our* end here in Maine. And Portland Jetport crews are working hard to keep it that way. Now, with an environmental twist. Something they have been working on for 6 years. A new aircraft de-icer fluid.

PORTLAND (NEWSCENTERMaine)-- Today's weather created a headache for travelers. Several flights were canceled. But the problem wasn't on *our* end here in Maine. And Portland Jetport crews are working hard to keep it that way. Now, with an environmental twist. Something they have been working on for 6 years. A new aircraft de-icer fluid.

You could call it aeronautic science meets the environment. Jetport Director Paul Bradbury explained the airport’s history-making move.

"We are the first airport in the United States to take airport de-icing fluid effluent from prior sprayed aircraft and process it into a new FAA-approved de-icing fluid."

It is the ultimate in recycling. A formula that truly re-uses waste.

"So what we're doing is accepting used fluid from other airports and our own and creating from that a brand new de-icing fluid which we'll be using to do all of our aircraft this season."

And as commercial airliners American and Delta are de-iced behind him, Adam Thurlow, Site Operations Manager, explained.

"Any small amount of contamination can have an adverse effect on an airplane's ability to gain lift. so we take everything off."

Adam and his company, Portland-based Environmental Service company 'Inland' have worked on the new de-icing recipe for the past several years.

"We have a five hundred thousand underground collection storage tank where effluent glycol, contaminated stormwater flows to us naturally, and we also have a gly-vac vacuum truck that actively power washes any surfaces contaminated with glycol."

Propylene Glycol is a powerful chemical--which, if it's not contained, can choke the oxygen out of aquatic life. It makes this first of its kind re-purposed de-icing solution, important all the way around.

"Traditional de-icing fluids in the United States are primarily made of propylene glycol. Propylene glycol has a high biological oxygen demand so when it reaches the estuaries and waterways it depletes the oxygen level and causes problems. So what we do is we first clean that fluid up and then we recycle it back to an active re-usable fluid."

The goal is to collect 80 percent of the collectible fluid, which means a large portion of potential pollutants stays out of our waterways.

To learn more about the Inland Technologies International Ltd., you can go to their website www.inlandgroup.ca

Both Inland Technologies and the Portland International Jetport have a history of sustainable projects. Inland won the 2014 Maine Water Environment Association’s Pre-Treatment Excellence Award.

The Portland Jetport was awarded an Environmental Achievement Award in 2012 for the Geothermal Project associated with the new terminal. In 2014, the Jetport also received the Airports Going Green Award.

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