The RX-5000α ( alpha ) is an automatic digital refractometer which can be used to control the amount of ethylene glycol in the waste water from the De-icing of the aeroplanes.
De-icing is the process of removing ice from a surface.
it is critical that an aircraft must be de-iced. Failure to do so means the surface of the aircraft's wings will be too rough to provide for the smooth flow of air and thereby greatly degrading the ability of the wing to generate lift, possibly resulting in a crash.
The method involves using a mixture of water and ethylene glycol to remove ice from the aeroplanes before take off.
It is usually done by spraying aircraft with a deicing fluid such as monopropellant glycol,
similar to ethylene glycol antifreeze used in some automobile engine coolants.
Ethylene glycol is still in use for aircraft deicing in some parts of the world, but Monopropylene glycol is more common.
Nevertheless, it still must be used with a containment system to capture all of the used liquid, so
the deicing fluid needs to be removed as much as possible before the mixture is sent to the wast water system.
Many airports successfully recycle used deicing fluid, separating out water and solid contaminants in order to be able to reuse the fluid.
The RX 5000alpha is used to control the mixture on the aeroplanes and the mixture that is sent to waste.
