Grease Trap and Its Effectiveness

Simply put a grease trap is a receptacle that kitchen wastewater flows through before entering the sanitary sewer lines. This receptacle and technically defined as a grease interceptor- interceptors along with captures or "traps" grease.

Grease, the industry term for animals fats and vegetable oils is 10 to 15 percent less dense than water. Grease also won’t conglomerate with water, as a result fats along with oils float on top of water as said by makers of pump servicing in Kent.

When the kitchen wastewater flows through a grease interceptor the grease interceptor along with the grease and oils rise to the surface inside the trap and are trapped using system of baffles. The captured grease along with the oils fill the trap from the top down, displacing "clean" water out of the bottom of the trap and into sewer line.

Peer into a grease trap and you will see a mat of grease. When this mat of grease gets deep enough the trap must be cleaned out.

Types of grease traps:

In the United Kingdom there are major types of grease traps found in food services establishment.

• Small passive hydro mechanical grease interceptors
• Large pre-cast concrete gravity grease interceptors
• Automatic grease/oils remove systems such as big dipper

Passive grease traps date back to 1885 when the first US patient was being issued. Today’s large and small grease traps use the same basic operating design as the 1885 model. While they do a fine job trapping grease, removing the grease is a task left to the owner.

Small passive traps must be cleaned out by hand. Large pre-casts traps on the other hand must be cleaned out by a professionally operated vacuum or pump truck

Grease trap efficiency:

As grease traps of the traditional design fill with grease, their efficiency at separating grease from waste water decreases, when a particular trap is filled to capacity with fats and oils, separation no longer occurs and the trap no longer functions properly.

Traditional concrete traps must be pumped out after just 25 percent of their volumes is filled, because after they no longer work well enough in keeping fats along with oils out of the sewage system.

Compact high capacity interceptors which are engineered so they never lose efficiency. They can hold upwards of 90% of their volume in grease before they must be cleaned out.

If traditionally designed passive traps are not cleaned out on a timely basis, they begin in allowing too much grease into the swear system where it can cause blockage and sewage backups. This creates problems for freshwater systems operators as well as the food service establishment.

Improperly maintained grease traps often leads to fines, down-time and can lead to bad publicity.

Tom Brown is a well known engineer providing quality blogs and articles on varied topics relating to electrical.