... to avoid using the unbelievably expensive de-icing fluid...
I've wondered about that; we use glycol in our cooling system at the winery and it's very expensive, about $1000/50 gallons or so. I looked at airport de-icing systems and it seems that glycol is not separated and reused but is eventually flushed down the drain. Are there systems to recycle glycol? That must be a huge bill at someplace like ORD.