What Happens To The Used Cooking Oil Once It Leaves Your Restaurant?

To give you a clear picture of what happens when you contract a used cooking oil (UCO) recycling company to collect your oil, they will provide you with a clean, tight-lidded bin, that is compliant with the city ordinances for the disposal of used oil. When this bin, or bins, depending on the size of your food service business, is full, they will come collect the oil, clean the bins and leave your workplace neat.

But what happens to the used fryer oil after it leaves your restaurant? Keep reading, that is what we are going to find out here:

The used oil is transported to the recycling center

The law requires you to collect all of your cooking oil separately, to prevent it from going into the sewer and drainage systems.

And since some oil will definitely escape and find its way inside the sink, or it will collect from the dishwasher, you are required to capture all the grease before the water is released to the sewerage system. To do this, you need a professionally installed grease interceptor.

The truck that will come to collect your oil on the designated day is also collecting from other facilities in the neighborhood.

This used vegetable oil is then transported to the recycling facility, where several processes take place, with the final objective being to turn this oil to biodiesel, animal feed, lubricants, soaps, and other useful things.

Today, there is advanced technology for filtering UCO. Of course, the recycling companies have to meet the strictest standards to ensure that they do not dump UCO irresponsibly, as that would be counterproductive to the entire process.

The yellow grease is filtered

Yellow grease is a collective name for fats, and oils, that are collected from food service facilities in the world.

But the restaurants do not just generate the yellow grease only. They also generate a lot of brown used oil, including the grease that comes from the FOG traps.

Since the yellow grease has been cooking different types of food, it usually contains a lot of food particles. Therefore, the recycling process starts with the collection of the oil, and then proceeds to the filtering at the plant.

In the filtering stage, the used frying oil is heated so that the impurities can be removed. Remember, during storage awaiting collection, the yellow grease will solidify, especially when it contains a lot of fat.

The UCO will be filtered to get rid of the small food particles, as the oil is passed through a centrifuge. The oil is spun to separate the oil and grease layers, and then reusable oil is produced.

The FOG collected from the grease interceptor, also called brown grease, is taken through a different process. It is processed through a different waste management system where the grease is separated from the water.

The water is then pumped to the sewage system while the FOG is removed, and it can be processed in an anaerobic system to produce biogas.

The oil is left to settle for hours

This is the next step in the UCO purification and recycling process. Once it has been through the filtering and stage where the impurities are removed, the entire amount is pumped into a tank where it is allowed to settle for some time.

This separates the different compounds, where they layer up, so that they become easy to separate. The water will be dumped, while the oil will be transferred to another holding tank, for the final process to turn it into biodiesel. Since water has a higher density, it settles at the bottom, while the oil is on top of the water.

Transesterification process – mixed with ethanol

After filtering and separating the oil from the grease, the product is still not ready for use. If it is added to vehicles that way, it can damage the piston rings, and other sensitive engine parts.

Therefore, the oil needs to be taken through the transesterification process, where the oil is mixed with a short-chain alcohol, or methanol.

Different used oil recycling companies use different things, including potassium hydroxide, or even sodium hydroxide. When thoroughly mixed, the result is a mix of glycerin and biodiesel.

Now, the only thing remaining is to separate the glycerin and the biodiesel. The former is sold to cosmetic companies, where it is used to manufacture different types of beauty products. The latter is a pure form of biodiesel that can be used in trucks, cars, farm machinery, and plants.

Is the biofuel produced by recycling UCO good?

Compared to the fossil fuels, biodiesel from UCO is one of the purest fuels, well, almost as pure as we will ever get from recycling. It produces less carbon emissions as compared to petroleum, by 74%. That is very clean!

This is also a source of renewable fuel because there will always be used vegetable oil to recycle. As long as people have to eat, there will always be old oil to recycle. At the same time, the used oil recycling movement is growing bigger by the day, with even homeowners taking their used frying oil to the closest collection centers.

The best thing is that this oil is so good for the environment, you know, preservation of the Ozone layer. The best feeling you will ever experience is to know that the truck coming to collect your used oil is running on biodiesel.

Remember, since the world still gets 80% of its fuel from petroleum, you can also mix the biodiesel with fossil petroleum, to cut your usage of the latter.

Final thoughts: work with a pro UCO company

The whole UCO recycling process is long, and requires advanced technology. All this is geared to help you prevent the dumping of yellow or brown grease into the sewer and drain systems.

Of course, through the whole process of collecting the used oil, emptying and cleaning the grease interceptor, and recycling the oil, working with a professional team helps move things faster, and more efficiently.

That is why Grand Natural is always with you, 24/7 to help keep your food service facility clean, compliant with the local and federal regulations, and running along as it should.

Call or email us today to talk to a professional about your grease trap installation, or cleaning needs, and your used oil collection.

Even if you are just getting started, and you don’t know what you need, call us. We will be glad to send a team over to scout the best place to install the grease interceptor, which will pass engineer’s approval.