Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) Deicing Facility Awarded for Engineering Excellence

GREEN, Ohio, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The recently-opened deicing plant at the Akron-Canton Airport received an Outstanding Achievement Award in the 2008 American Council of Engineering Companies of Ohio (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. The award is the second highest honor in the competition and CAK was one of nine projects to receive the Outstanding Achievement Award. A total of 33 projects were submitted.

Rick McQueen, assistant airport director, and representatives from Floyd Browne Group, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. and Gresham, Smith and Partners accepted the award today.

“We are honored to accept this award and pleased to acknowledge the fine work done by our engineering team,” said McQueen. “This system goes beyond simply compiling with State mandates for water discharge by setting a new standard in environmentally friendly processes and recycling. The advanced engineering in this system will surely be helpful to airports around the country that are looking to CAK as a model to build their own deicing systems.”

The deicing facility is the second of its kind at any U.S. airport and one of the most sophisticated glycol removal systems in the world. The treatment system dramatically reduces glycol discharge, leftover from deicing aircraft, into local storm water systems. The system includes two concrete pads where aircraft are deiced, two 750,000 gallon storage tanks constructed to hold the glycol-contaminated water, a facility that houses an anaerobic fluidized bed reactor system which uses a biotic community to treat the glycol. Methane gas, a byproduct of the process, is captured and re-used in the treatment plant as fuel to heat the storm water and the building.

About Akron-Canton Airport

The airport dedicated its new, spacious, passenger concourse and celebrated its sixtieth birthday in October 2006. The concourse was the centerpiece of the airport’s $60 million, five-year STAR expansion project which also wrapped up in 2006. Also, the Akron-Canton Airport received the Service Brand Promise award on June 7, 2007 as part of the first annual Five Star World Class Customer Service Awards presented by SBN magazine. Additional information including flight reservations and driving instructions is available at http://www.akroncantonairport.com, CAK’s comprehensive web portal. Akron-Canton Airport, a better way to go(R).