Using solvents & surfactants for lift station grease control!

6/16/2020

Nocardia foam on aeration basin is directly related to FOG in the influent.

Last week I saw an article on a municipality discovering that a biodegradable detergent was effective in reducing grease buildup in a problem lift station. according to the article, this "natural" solution was ecologically friendly solution to the grease problem.

Well solvents and detergents can mobilize grease & fatty acids - cleaning the lift station. But to call this a "good" solution to the problem is a mistake. Surfactants do not degrade or transform grease but instead create oil-water emulsions that move downstream to the wastewater treatment plant. If there is not too much grease, the emulsion and associated grease will be biologically degraded by the wastewater plant bacteria. (I know too much is qualitative and not a hard number, but the exact amount of grease differs for every system). But often using surfactants just pushes the problem to another part of the system and better solutions can be implemented.

If you use surfactant lift station treatment here are the things that can happen:

Emulsion breaks in the collection system and redeposits
Additional FOG enters the treatment system promoting Nocardia growth
FOG can create non-filamentous bulking conditions by increasing water trapped in MLSS - makes biosolid disposal more difficult.
Can increase organic loading to biological unit (decrease primary treatment efficiency) - which results in more difficulty in keeping the biological system operating in target zone.

What can be done to treat a lift station instead of surfactants?

Utilize programs to keep grease out of the sewers - public education
Encourage the use of grease traps with routine inspection/cleaning for restaurants & commercial buildings
Use biological pretreatment - grease degrading microbes (like those in the wastewater plant) can initiate biological treatment in the gravity mains and lift-stations
Mixers/aeration in the lift station can help by promoting grease biological degradation (best used with above biological treatment program)

Charlie Sutherland

6/18/2020 02:46:16 pm

I appreciate your comments and would have been reluctant to suggest we have a cure but for four years of Mayodan experiences and careful tuning of the process. We think we might have something. We just want experts to verify what we are seeing. We were sure you had to verify your bacterial solutions as well. Just maybe we can learn together what is going on. Looking forward to hearing from you.

James Sutherland link

6/19/2020 12:59:33 pm

The company that I think you're talking about, as well as the municipality referenced in the article you mention, would love to commend you for pointing out how unique their situation is.

The point of the article you are probably mentioning, is that after 4 years, and when used in a very "greasy" applications, the local wastewater treatment plant has seen absolutely no changes after implementing the use of our Very unique surfactant blend. Thank you for pointing out how important the Treatment Plant's position is on any additive.

The Other waste water treatment facility in our county also has tributaries being fed with our products, and all results point to the positive. Lower FOG build up at the lift stations means that build-ups never happen, and neither do plugs which can drastically change the chemistry of the treatment plant when dislodged eventually.

The town guys love it because they don't have to clean the lift stations of build-up, which is the most hateful part of their job, they say.

We believe we have something unique. Associates in Mayodan, Reidsville, Eden, Wentworth, and Madison are also reporting to us that we have something unique. We seek only the opportunity to recreate what others have seen.

We applaud your efforts to weed out the ineffectual, the harmful, and the dishonest. As you well know, this industry has historically been rife with these things, and we do not want to add. We think, with a whole different approach to verification, we can all go into the future in the most efficient way possible. This means allowing new technologies to surface and be tested.

Fear can hold back change. We seek to verify claims, and do not want to offer our products to distribution houses until we can do just that. If any of your readers want to help us, we would appreciate it. Thanks for mentioning (or not mentioning) our comapany. Sutherland Products appreciates the attention.

Erik Rumbaugh

6/19/2020 01:10:41 pm

I would like to know more about what you have been doing. In past experience, I have seen d-limonene to Dawn dishwasing detergent being dumped to prevent grease. This resulted in a big mess downstream at the wastewater plant - to where a grease trap product developed for restaurants was going to be banned for having less than 1% surfactant. My direct email is erumbaugh@asterbio.com.

James link

6/22/2020 06:53:55 am

Yes, that is why our situation is so unique. And that is why the municipalities are loving it so much. No problem at the WWT site.

We don't only have surfactants, but also a blend of raw materials that seems to be negating any negative effects that "surfactants" usually have.

We've tried our product in a grease trap, but without a decent amount of water flowing, the trap didn't seem to come clean. A Lift Station seems to be a completely different animal, and we have excellent results cleaning and mediating FOG build-up. I look forward to talking with you about it. Thanks for being open to the possibility! It's been an uphill battle.

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Using solvents & surfactants for lift station grease control!

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