Ottawa startup hopes to set a fire under de-icing technology
By Bert Hill, Ottawa Citizen
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| Chinook is hoping to land a deal soon with Air Canada that could potentially reduce airport delays and the environmental consequences of using heated glycol to remove ice and snow from planes. |
OTTAWA — Pierre Bourgault says he is slowing down. "I'm working only about three-quarters of the time now. I'm not ready for the rocking chair yet." Still, at 82, the retired university administrator is a driving force behind one of Ottawa's most intriguing clean technology startups.
Chinook Mobile Heating and Deicing Corp. hopes to land a deal soon with Air Canada, and possibly other airlines and equipment manufacturers. By offering an alternative to the cost, delays and environmental consequences of using heated glycol to remove snow and ice from aircraft, Bourgault's goal is to carve out 30 per cent of the estimated $2 billion the air industry spends annually to make planes safe in cold weather.
Chinook technology delivers water-saturated steam from specially shaped heads on trucks parked beside aircraft.
Bourgault said the technology generates big savings in terms of getting aircraft ready to fly as passengers board.
At present, an ice-covered aircraft has to taxi to a special treatment area, creating delays in departures and possible missed flight connections as well as the extra personnel cost of air and ground crews.
Indeed, it was Bourgault's experience as a vice-rector of the University of Ottawa getting delayed by ice storms on business trips in the '80s that got him thinking.
"I was sitting in a plane waiting for a flight. But the plane was frozen up, and by the time we got going, I missed my connecting flight to Rome."
Chinook believes its technology can speed de-icing by 30 minutes because aircraft don't have to be moved to a central pad.
More significantly, it eliminates the need for using glycol — a toxic, organic compound best known for its use as automotive antifreeze — except in situations when ice is unusually thick.
"The big savings in the glycol," said Bourgault. "The airplane is free of ice and there isn't glycol left spread all over the place. Now it costs about $2 gallon to buy the glycol and $5 a gallon to clean it up."
Bourgault said "aircraft can take off sooner without having to visit the de-icing pad unless the ice is very thick. It saves the use of toxic glycol and the problems of collecting and processing the contaminated residue."
He said the company successfully tested the technology at Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal airports last winter and has more tests planned this winter. Chinook is assembling the prototype machines in Smiths Falls, Ont. It has about a dozen employees.
He said a number of other Canadian and international airlines as well as airports in Oslo and Amsterdam are interested in the technology.
But like most startups, including clean-technology companies, financing is an issue.
Bourgault said Chinook has raised $6 million to $7 million from the Sustainable Development Technologies Canada, the National Research Council, federal research credits and the Ontario government.
Small private investors, particularly friends and families, are critical to survival.
"I've got a lot of my own skin in the game."
Conventional venture- and private-equity capital is hard to find and comes with issues.
"Venture capital is a challenge. To date we have found that they want an extra good deal than we are prepared to pay. They want almost everything but they don't want to give too much money."
Ice and snow have been major safety and operational issues since the first aircraft flew, generating a number of attempts to find alternatives to glycol.
One technology still used in a few locations employs infrared heating technology, but Bourgault said this has not proven effective.
Other approaches involve redesigning glycol spraying gear to deliver weaker mixtures at higher pressures into areas that can't be readily reached.
Glycol brings special problems that can't readily be fixed. Bourgault said that it can't be used on jet engines or on the propeller blades or landing gear of helicopters because of the dangers of penetrating seals or washing away lubricants.
Still, the industry is slow to change and needs proof that alternative methods can work. Bourgault said he is confident about the future because trials last winter were successful.
"We proved the technology works. It can clear ice off an aircraft while passengers are boarding and not delay departures.
"It can reach difficult areas and remove 99 per cent of the ice."
Bourgault's "tempered steam" invention, protected by several patents, delivers a mixture of hot-water vapour and air.
A hotter mixture is applied to wings and aircraft bodies. A slightly cooler mixture is applied to engines in order to remove ice without damaging seals and components.
Chinook said the technology can be tailored to the specific needs of aircraft, particularly ones with exotic composite skins.
Chinook believes that its technology can find a big market at Canadian airports, which currently spend $200 million annually de-icing airplanes and recovering and treating the glycol that is splashed on aircraft.
It estimates that U.S. and European airports spend 10 times more.
The biggest cost for airports is vast apron liners, underground chambers and treatment facilities to capture the pools of glycol left behind. But some inevitably escapes, and it is hazardous to humans and nature, especially in its best-known ethylene glycol form.
Ethylene glycol depletes the oxygen in groundwaters, affecting plants and animals. It can also be lethal to humans and animals if ingested directly. More recent propylene glycol varieties now in use at many airports are considered non-toxic, but still must be contained.
Chinook estimates that its technology could reduce de-icing expenses by more than $800 million annually around the world.
Bourgault has been working on his de-icing ideas for years, first for the construction industry to allow work to continue when winter cold has frozen the ground at building sites. Another application would remove ice around high-traffic o ffice buildings.
He said these markets will have to wait until Chinook proves the technology in the airport market.
