Clean Landing — SBIR- STTR Success Story
A Mobile Cleaning, Recovery, and Recycling System Helps with Runway Cleaning and Gets Naval Aircraft Carriers and Municipal Parking Lots into Shipshape.
A Navy aircraft carrier idles in the middle of the ocean, readiness compromised by foreign object debris (FOD) across its flight deck. Debris and hard particles have built up from aircraft and ground-support activity. Even something as routine as moving planes from the hangar deck to the flight deck can spread debris or spill grease and jet fuel. Given that jet engines have powerful intakes that can suck up debris, the risk of damage to aircraft engines becomes too significant to allow takeoffs and landings. Even a bit of spilled grease or fuel can be dangerous if aircraft slip into each other on the rolling deck of a carrier on high seas.
In order to get the carrier fully operational, the Navy calls on Triverus, a Palmer, Alaska-based small business that has produced advanced cleaning technology since 2001. Triverus ships their five-ton Mobile Cleaning Reclaim Recycle System (MCRRS, pronounced “McChris”) to the vessel overnight. MCRRS immediately starts runway cleaning on the deck using water-jet technology, integrated air recovery, and waste-water recycling. Within a short time, the flight deck is spotless, and the ship certified as mission ready.