THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN AIRCRAFT DEICING/ANTI-ICING FLUIDS

Currently, military and civilian airports employ large quantities of glycol-based runway and wing deicers which are either toxic or biodegrade too rapidly, but in either event, have a negative impact on the environment. To address this problem, the USAF is seeking to develop and environmentally benign deicing/anti-icing. Agent that eliminates or significantly reduces the biological oxygen demand of airfield runoff, is nontoxic, non-corrosive to aircraft components, and cost-effective. Under the proposed program, METSS will develop and test new environmentally benign anti-icing formulations using a proven approach to cost-effective materials development. METSS will draw on existing materials and technology, working directly with industry participants to select the best materials for product formulation. This approach ensures a non-biased approach to achieving the program objectives and opens up the opportunity of creating customized formulations that can be designed to directly address performance requirements. Theoretical and computational methods will be used to assist the materials screening and product formulation efforts, followed by a well designed series of screening test to identify the best candidate materials and direct materials development efforts.