De-icer recycling saves Munich €2 million annually

Costs cut in wastewater treatment and de-icer purchasing
2 million litres of raw material saved
Avoided carbon dioxide emissions of 15 million tonnes/year

Muttenz, October 11, 2011 - Thanks to its EcoTain system for recycling aircraft de-icer, Munich Airport avoids potential, additional costs of approximately €2 million every year. According to Dr Martin Westermaier of Clariant, the savings come in two areas: wastewater treatment of used de-icer effluent, much of which is avoided by recycling; and purchasing of fresh de-icer, which is substituted by the recycled product.

“Recycling is a win-win-win for Munich Airport,” Westermaier said in a presentation at a trade fair, inter airport Europe. “They save money and raw materials, and they reduce the environmental impact of de-icing.” Munich annually spares the purchase of 2 million litres of de-icer raw materials, and it avoids carbon dioxide emissions of 15,000 tonnes. The carbon savings are roughly equivalent to the emissions of: 1) an average, new European passenger car¹ being driven for 100 million kilometres; or 2) 64 thousand round-trip flights² between Munich and London.

At Munich, where recycling has been done since 1992, de-icer is collected, cleaned and re-used all within the confined of the airport. For airports with enough de-icing volume and space for equipment, ‘on-site’ recycling is the way to go, Westermaier noted. For airports with less volume and/or less space available, he added, there is the option of ‘off-site’ recycling: spent de-icer is collected and concentrated at the airport, but then returned to Clariant for recycling. “Off-site recycling has worked well for five years at Zurich Airport in Switzerland,” Westermaier said, “and it will go into operation this coming winter in Oslo Airport in Norway as well.”

¹ That emits about 150 g CO₂e per km driven.

² According to TerraPass.com, this emits just over 235 kg of CO₂e per roundtrip.