Collecting and removing waste water from infrastructure and grounds is just part of the challenge for today’s airport authorities; treating and recycling that water preserves the natural, full cycle of water, explains one leading drainage specialist active in the aviation industry
Büdelsdorf, Germany-headquartered ACO Group is a leading name in the drainage technology business, and the aviation market represents one of its main areas of focus. But, as Heino Messerschmidt, a senior international product manager with the company, explains, the company offers airports much more than simple surface drainage systems.
ACO offers gateways customised solutions for surface water management airside (on runways, taxiways and right across the ramp, as well as maintenance sheds), landside (in car parks and terminal drop-off sites, terminal approaches and so on) and both on and within terminals (for roof drainage and for catering facilities, toilets and VIP shower areas, for example). While it is best known for its surface water collection and drainage systems, its solutions actually cover collection, drainage, storage, treatment and the return of the clean water to the ground water system, Messerschmidt observes.
It’s a comprehensive range of systems all designed to “keep an airport dry”, remarks Brunhild Schmidtke, another ACO senior international product manager. Evidently, keeping an airport clear of surface water is vital for any gateway’s smooth running, for efficient aircraft operations, for vehicles and for passengers. But alongside the collection process, treatment of the water – that is, attenuation and filtration of pollutants including grease, oil and sediments – offers a gateway the potential to put any water back into the natural ecosystem. Thus, “we can take care of the whole water cycle,” says Schmidtke.
ACO’s list of customers includes a wide range of airports, large and small, around the world. It includes very recent added Brazilian clients Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo airports (which wanted primarily an apron drainage solution), for example, and – going slightly further back – London Heathrow’s Terminal 5, which required water drainage from various locations across the facility. Another of Europe’s busiest gateways, Frankfurt, was recently supplied by ACO with huge separation and sedimentation tanks.
Other airport clients include Calgary in Canada, Istanbul Ataturk and Antalya in Turkey, Sofia in Bulgaria, Vienna in Austria, Guangdong in China, Rome Fiumicino and Palermo in Italy, Washington Dulles in the US, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra in Australia, Burgas in Bulgaria, and Mumbai in India.
There’s much more focus today on how the water is treated and recycled, rather than just how it is collected, but that latter function remains absolutely critical. And ACO continues to make improvements in this area, too, Messerschmidt advises. Surprisingly, perhaps, one of the major developments of late at ACO has concerned improving the degree of ‘tightness’ of the water channels that carry off surface water. Such lines and channels have not always been watertight, he points out, largely thanks to imperfect connections between channels. ACO’s new ‘Sealin’ technology means that the channels come with an automatic seal.
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Apron water channels have to withstand an enormous amount of pressure – up to the weight of a 550-tonne A380. ACO DRAIN heavy-duty channels are perhaps the product range that the company is best known for in the airport sector, but it also supplies a wide range of drains and covers to support its different types of water channels for apron applications.
It also offers roof and car park drainage systems for outside terminals, and floor gullies for inside. Drainage channels and floor gullies, as well as grease separators and commercial food waste systems for kitchens, complement other solutions for airport toilet and shower facilities.
But every project is different, of course, so ACO will seek to provide a customised solution for each airport customer, as well as after-sales support as required.
