facilities and services
For Utilities

Utilities experiencing FOG problems should contact BlackGold about locating a recycling facility in their jurisdiction.

BlackGold also offers consulting services to wastewater utilities and engineering firms in order to reduce the cost burden of FOG and facilitate successful resource recovery projects. Services include feedstock analyses, project feasibility studies, implementation plans FOG management program public education/outreach campaigns, compliance incentives, and cost-effective enforcement strategies.

Whether the grease is trucked to a treatment plant from compliant generators or is flowing to the plant through sewer pipes, sewer grease costs utilities millions of dollars a year. For example, the City of San Francisco estimates it spends $3.5MM a year on operations and maintenance and loses $47MM a year in reduced infrastructure lifespan due to sewer grease. The following areas are FOG-related cost centers:

Collection System (Sewer Pipes) Operations & Maintenance

  • Regulatory fines, forced upgrades, and legal action for overflow-related Clean Water Act violations
  • Environmental remediation of overflows
  • Vehicles, equipment, and labor crews attempting to remove grease in the pipes to prevent overflows

Infrastructure

  • FOG is slightly acidic. This corrosiveness combined with the invasive methods for FOG removal from sewer pipes damages the integrity of the pipes, leading to early failures.
  • At wastewater treatment plants, the grease chokes pumps, blinds filters, and gums up moving parts. Increased wear and tear on these units reduces their useful life and increases regular maintenance costs.

Treatment Plant

  • FOG requires an enormous amount of energy to break down (COD), requiring more than 300 times the amount of aeration energy than septic waste
  • Grease increases equipment failures and downtime, reducing the overall efficiency of the entire plant
  • Trucked in FOG and scum skimmed off from clarifier tanks is typically dewatered and sent to landfills. This increases handling costs and results in freight and tipping fees.

Conversion to biodiesel is currently the highest and best use of FOG; rising financial and environmental costs of petroleum fuels continue to strengthen this value proposition. Though FOG can increase gas production in anaerobic digestion, only 30% of the energy content in the FOG is realized in the gas, and current and forecasted natural gas prices do not justify the investment. Further, FOG in the digester threatens to disrupt the nutrient load of the system and risks crusting, foaming and lid tipping. Incinerating FOG can produce flare-ups that threaten safety and operation of the incinerator. As incineration regulation becomes increasing stringent and as industry shifts to fluidized bed incinerators that achieve sludge burn without fuel, incinerating FOG loses its beneficial reuse value.