Meltsnow.com's Airport & Specialty Deicers

Airports demand high performance snow and ice control products that have low potential for adverse effects on aircraft and airport support systems. Most forms of chloride-based snow and ice control products accelerate corrosion and leave residue on the treated surfaces. This residue can transfer into critical aircraft areas, such as engines and controls.

Because of this, most chloride-based deicing products are off the list. Accordingly, we at Meltsnow.com divide our snow and ice management products for airports into two groups:

Meltsnow.com Meets This Challenge Head On

Meltsnow.com's Products For Airport Facilities: The Aircraft Side Meltsnow.com offers solutions to the aircraft side of airport facilities with well-known chemicals like urea and sodium formate. These chemicals are frequently used in baggage handling areas and in smaller private airports as a runway deicer. Other snow and ice products include sodium acetate, potassium acetate, and specialty glycols, such as ethylene glycol and propylene-glycol-based runway and wing deicers.		Meltsnow.com's Products For Airport Facilities: The Passenger Side Moving over to the passenger side of an airport facility, we have a complete host of products to offer. MAG® Pellets (magnesium chloride) are used extensively in four international airports in the Northeast for snow and ice management because of their environmentally friendly chemistry and low corrosion qualities. While they absolutely cannot be used on the aircraft side, the passenger areas, such as parking lots, sidewalks, ramps, and facility aprons, use MAG® products extensively and with great proven success. In fact, it's the only deicer that MASSPORT will use at Boston's Logan Airport. Our calcium chloride nuggets are highly effective at opening frozen storm basins and cutting through thick ice in critical areas.

Balancing Performance Against Adverse Consequences - An Ongoing Challenge
Like all forms of snow and ice management, airports must balance performance against potential and real adverse consequences.

For example, Boston's Logan Airport recently ran into some problems with horrific odors at the entrance to the new Ted Williams Tunnel project. Identifying the source of these rancid odors proved challenging for investigators since the tunnel was brand new and the impact on the fragile Boston Harbor ecosystem was not fully understood.

Investigators finally concluded that runoff from propylene-glycol-based runway deicers used during the heavy snows of the preceding winter caused changes in the tidal pools near the entrance to the tunnel, which eventually caused biological changes and set up the rancid odors

While most people agree that keeping runways clear of snow and ice far outweighs the adverse consequence of rotten egg smells at tollbooths, the issue of balance is still important - especially if you're the toll collector breathing in the odors night and day or the fisherman whose livelihood is dependent upon seafood caught in the waters off the airport.

A chloride-based deicer would likely not have caused these kinds of problems, but they would have contributed to - and accelerated - the eventual corrosion of critical aircraft components, thus potentially creating a much larger threat. Balancing performance against adverse consequences is always paramount in snow and ice management whether it's an airport or someone's driveway where a pet walks every day. The issue of balance is The issue of snow and ice control.

Let Meltsnow.com Be Your Partner In Snow And Ice Control At Airport Facilities
There's a lot more to controlling snow and ice in an airport than just keeping the runways cleared and the aircraft deiced for takeoff. While the runway system occupies much real estate in any airport, the parking lots and sidewalks are where passengers first encounter the facility's snow and ice-control program. A slip and fall at the curbside check-in can be costly. So when you think about snow and ice control at airports, don't limit your thinking to just the aircraft side.

Meltsnow.com offers broad knowledge of chemicals, chemistry, and options for our customers to help find the snow and ice control solution that balances these factors.

We welcome distributor inquiries. Make Meltsnow.com your partner in snow and ice control at airport facilities by contacting us today at 508.520.3900