ChE 507E

Industrial Waste
Management & Control
04 – Removal of Fats, Oil, and
Grease

1
Fats, Oils, & Grease (FOG)
Fats, oils, and grease found in wastewater can cause:
 Blocked sewers
 Excessive floating solids in pumping stations wet wells
 High scums concentrations in primary settling basins,
causing carry-overs to downstream pro- cesses
 Poorer performance of biological treatment processes
 Coated multimedia and granular activated carbon
filters
 Difficulty in thickening & dewatering of biosolids
 Potential violations of the government regulations
which prohibits discharges of visible oil sheens &
floating solids.

2
Types of oils in wastewater:
 Free oil – oil present in water having little or no
association with it.
 Physical emulsion – oil dispersed in water in stable
form as 5-20 mm droplets. Formed by mixing thru
pumping, and valves.
 Chemical emulsion – oil dispersed in water as less than
5 mm. Formed by detergents alkaline fluids, chelating
agents, or proteins
 Dissolved oil – oil that is solubilized in liquid. Dissolved
oil is detected by infrared analysis or other means
 Oil wet solids – oil that adheres to the surface of
wastewater or solids.

3
Sources of FOG:
FOG typically averages 30-50 mg/li in domestic
wastewater, and represents as much as 20% of the
organic matter measured as BOD. Industrial typically has
higher FOG concentration.
 Food-processing industry - sources include meat
processors & renderers, edible oil producers, nut &
seed processors. Wastewater is largely due to
cooking, and clean-ups. These flows often has high
FOG concentrations & show significant variations.
Gravity separation, pH adjustment, and coagulation
are the mostcommon types of FOG pretreatment in
the food-industry.

4
 Metals working industry – basically has 4 types of
metal fluids used (lubricants, coolants, & cutting tool
oils):
 Straight oil (insoluble oil with little or no water)
 Soluble oil (oil-water emulsion)
 Synthetic metalworking fluids (aqueous mixture of
organic compounds)
 Semi-synthetic metalworking fluids (hybrid of
synthetic metal working fluids & soluble oil)
Oily wastewater can originate from machining shops,
stamping plants, machine shops, etc, and consist of
spent metal working fluids, spent wash water, and
spills. These are typically treated by using an acid,
acid salt (i.e. alum), or a polymer to break the emulsion
so oil& water can separate.

5
 Biological treatment can also be used to de-emulsify
such waste Treatment methods depends on on the
metal working fluids and are typically recommended
by the fluid manufacturers.
Greases applied to metal surfaces for corrosion
protection can also end-up in wastewater. Degreasing
are typically by organic solvents or aqueous alkaline
cleaning solution which maybe flammable, toxic to
microorganism, or can generate toxic gases.
 Petroleum industry – wastewater contain free and
emulsified oil from leaks, spills, tanks draw-off, oil-
laden condensate, waters from distillate separators,
oil-laden sludges, chemical treatment-related
emulsions, crude oil & various forms of oil fractions,
soaps, waxy emulsions, etc.
6
 Other industries – other industries that generate
significant amount of FOG include industrial laundries,
vehicle washing facilities, iron & steel manufacture,
pharmaceutical manufacturers, aluminum can
manufacturers, and printed-wire board
manufacturers.

7
Industries that are major contributors FOG to waste-
water treatment plants:

Industry Types of FOG

Vegetable oil refining Vegetable
Soap manufacture Vegetable & animal
Dairy/Milk processing Animal
Slaughterhouse/Rendering/Meat processing Animal
Food preparation/Eating establishment Vegetable & animal
Metal working/processing Petroleum
Tanneries Animal
Wool processing Animal
Petroleum indistry Petroleum
Organic chemical Petroleum, animal & vegetable

8
9
FOG Pretreatment Techniques:
FOG removal system should be as close as possible to the
source to minimize the places where FOG can accumulate,
and to reduce the size of the downstream treatment
units. Before choosing a pretreatment process, FOG
should be characterized and treatability study be done.
There are 2 stages in FOG treatment:
1. 1’st stage – separates free FOG, i.e removal of fats,
greases, and non-emulsified oils. Typically this is by
gravity separation, and gravity separation enhanced
with coalescing media or parallel plates.
2. 2’nd stage – involves breaking of emulsions & removing
emulsified FOG,via heating, distillation, chemical
treatment & centrifugation, chemical treatment &
pre-coat filtration, and filtration

10
 Gravity Separation – gravity separators ranges from
small package restaurant units to large industrial
product-recovery system. Typical of these are:
 Grease traps – oil interceptors designed & installed
in the drainage system of the kitchen to collect &
retain FOG. They should be readily readily
accessible for cleaning & maintenance.
 Gravity separator with mechanical float removal &
waste oil storage. It is used to treat industrial
wastes from rendering plants, food processors, oil
refineries. Large separators mybe opearated in
batch or continuous depending on the volume &
type of waste treated. In the food industry, oil
recovered maybe reused of sold as animal feed.
Food grade materials degrade rapidlly, so they
must be processed daily.
11
 The American Petroleum Institute had developed &
published a standard criteria for design of gravity
separators which is based on removal of all free oil
globules larger than 0.015 cm (0.0059”). An exam-
ple of the API designed oil separator is shown in
the next slide.
 The equation shown below can be used for approxi-
mate calculation:
Vt = 1.224(10-2)[(Sw-So)/m]
where: Vt = rise rate of oil globule of 0.015 mm/s
or more
Sw = specific gravity of wastewater
So = specific gravity of oil in wastewater
m = viscosity of wastewater, N-s/m

12
The particle terminal rise can be converted to
overflow rate by unit conversion:
Vt = d/t = (d/LBd)/Qm = Qm/LB
= overflow rate
where: d = depth of oil in separator, mm
t = retention time in separator, seconds
L = separator length, mm
B = width of separator
Qm = wastewater flow rate, m3/s
Vt = overflow rate, m3/m2.day (which is
equivalent to the rise rate of the
smallest particle to be removed

13
The overflow rate can be used to estimate the
require surface area:
AH = F(Qm/Vt)

where: AH = min. surface area for gravity settling,

m2
F = flow short-circuiting/turbulence
correction factor, typically ranges
from 1.2 – 1.8

14
Eckenfelder, Industrial
Wastewater Pollution
Control,
Figure 3.29

Example of General
Arrangement of API Oil
Separator

15