Finding Environmentally-Friendly Energy Production Options

Posted on: 1 November 2017

If you own or operate a restaurant, then it is important to understand just how vital it is to have your grease trap cleaned out on a regular basis. You should have your trap cleaned about once a month and/or when about 25 percent of the trap is filled with grease and/or other solid materials. However, your city may require you to clean your traps more frequently. Look into your city's health and/or water department's grease trap guidelines to determine how often you need to have your traps cleaned to stay in compliance with local ordinances, since they can vary. 

Before you get tempted to skip a regular grease trap cleaning after a slow month or quarter, read on to learn why it is so important to have your grease traps cleaned on a regular basis and how having the grease recycled can protect the environment.

2 Reasons Regular Grease Trap Cleaning Is Important

1. Regular Cleaning Keeps Your Tank in Good Condition

If your restaurant came equipped with a grease trap, then you may not realize that, if it were to deteriorate, it could cost thousands of dollars to replace. One easy way to keep your grease trap in good condition is to have it cleaned on a regular basis. When your trap is filled with grease and food solids, these solids break down over time and produce hydrogen sulfur gas that then turns into sulfuric acid.

This acid can destroy even the toughest steel or concrete elements of your grease trap, leading to a need for early replacement or repair that you can avoid by having your grease trap cleaned regularly.

2. A Dirty Grease Trap Can Catch on Fire

While you may know that cleaning the grease off your restaurant hood exhaust systems, stoves, and ovens on a regular basis will help prevent kitchen fires, don't fall for the misconception that many restaurant owners have that a grease trap can't catch on fire since the trap contains both grease and water. Grease traps can catch on fire, and having your trap cleaned regularly is the easiest way to prevent these fires.

How Recycling Your Grease Protects the Environment

If you want to take steps to ensure that your restaurant operations don't take a larger toll on the environment than necessary, then it is important to choose your grease removal company wisely. Choose one that recycles your grease trap waste instead of adding it to one of the nation's landfills.

When grease and food waste are dumped into landfills, they produce methane gas, which is an environmental pollutant, as they break down. However, when your grease and food waste is recycled and methane gas is harvested from it, this gas can be used to create natural electricity.

How are kitchen grease and food solids turned into methane gas? First, the solids are placed into a machine called an anaerobic methane digester. The solids then go through four stages of digestion before they release methane gas that is then transferred to a generator to produce electricity:

1. Hydrolysis. During the first stage of anaerobic digestion, the fats in the grease and the protein and carbohydrates in the food waste that came from your grease trap are broken down into amino acids, glucose molecules, and fatty acids.
2. Acidogenesis. The small molecules are further broken down into alcohols and volatile fatty acids.
3. Acetogenesis. The alcohols and volatile fatty acids are broken down into carbon dioxide, ammonia, and hydrogen.
4. Methanogenesis. During the final stage of anaerobic digestion, methane gas that can be used to create electricity is finally released.

Not only does recycling your grease trap waste eliminate the methane that would enter the environment as the waste would decompose in a landfill, but it also helps produce natural electricity that is much better for the environment than traditional electricity. Traditional power plants produce greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming and climate change.

If you own or operate a restaurant, then realize that having your grease traps cleaned on a regular basis may be more important than you realize. Also, choose a grease trap cleaning company that recycles your grease and food waste instead of disposing of it in a landfill to help limit your restaurant's negative environmental impact.