We picked up two news items last week that point to maximizing ramp efficiency by using space underground:
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, for example, started using a new PCA system at gates in the A and B concourses last week. The Port of Seattle built a centralized plant to deliver PCA through an extensive piping network to each of the airport’s 73 jet gates. (The rest of the gates should go online by the end of this year.)
According to press information, more than 15 miles of piping installed within the existing terminal connects all of the gates to a system of chillers and heaters to provide the PCA. The central plant houses four 750 ton chillers that fill 16 ice storage tanks with ethylene-glycol solution cooled by electricity furnished by the airport. Four secondary pumps circulate the chilled liquid through pipes to the gates for cooling.
Alternately, the airport’s steam plant heats water that is piped to gates for heating. A heat exchanger at the gate directs the conditioned air through a telescoping duct on the jet bridges, to a ventilation hose and directly into the aircraft’s cabin.
- We also read in Airport News about Cavotec’s plans to improve efficiency at Brazilian airports.
The publication interviewed Andrea Della Bianca, director of Cavotec’s Brazilian operations on the use of electric PCA systems installed under boarding bridges. More here.
