Why Fog Recovery Is Essential for Your Industrial Facility

FOG Recovery is a Budgeting and Sustainability Win 

Through the lens of your facility, fats, oils and greases (FOG) may seem like nothing more than a waste by-product of your daily operations. But when properly recovered and repurposed, your waste can become a valuable commodity that can eventually become a pecuniary resource.  

Our closed-loop process includes collection and recovery of these materials. We repurpose them into ingredients for renewable diesel, a cleaner burning alternative to petroleum-based fuels that can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent. With us, your waste is not only responsibly handled, but also turned into something of value that helps you reduce your carbon footprint and contributes to a more sustainable future. 

Related Content: DAR PRO’s Industrial Food Processing Services 

Why You Need DAR PRO On Your Side 

We understand that no industrial plant intends to discharge FOG material into its drainage system. In a perfect world, none of this valuable material would end up in your wastewater. In reality, it’s an inevitable consequence of creating your product.  

We also understand the desire to not acknowledge what seems like a minor issue. However, neglecting FOG recovery can turn into a major issue—and an expensive one. Don’t pour money down the drain. 

If it isn’t addressed, this will eventually impact your plant operations. Emergency repairs and recovery don’t just cost money, but they can bring production to a halt.  

It can also significantly add to your overall pretreatment costs and potentially cause you to be surcharged by your local municipal wastewater authority. 

Save on Wastewater Treatment Costs 

FOG recovery also helps you avoid potential costly backups to your facility's drainage system. While your plant is producing its product, oil and grease can leak from a variety of sources. Whether it be your frying equipment, conveyor or elsewhere, it can eventually end up in your drains and mix in with your wastewater.  

This is a problem for a couple of reasons, mainly because an increased amount of FOG in wastewater causes treatment costs to soar.  

A general rule of thumb is that for every pound of FOG that goes down the drain, it will produce approximately four pounds of sludge when removed during the treatment process. Not only does removing this extra waste take time and money, it creates extra BOD (biological oxygen demand) materials in the water and requires an array of chemicals.  

If you are unable to effectively remove the FOG from your wastewater stream, it can lead to added pump-out charges and possible surcharges from your local wastewater utility. This is both costly and time consuming for your business. 

Stay Compliant with Local Wastewater Regulations 

Catching leaking oils before they bleed into your wastewater systems is crucial to your facility remaining in adherence with local guidelines, as well as avoiding additional costs.  

Industrial facilities require copious amounts of water to function, sometimes enough water to supply a small city. The United States uses roughly 322 billion gallons of water per day and industrial facilities account for around half of that. Your plant is likely required by your local municipality to meet certain discharge limits for wastewater going back to the city.  

Why? High volumes of untreated industrial wastewater can be harmful to both the city’s sewage system and the environment. If you exceed these limits on a continual basis, your plant could be hit with a hefty surcharge. When you are able to reduce the concentration of contaminants in the water—also known as loading—that develops during your pre-treatment process, you will greatly reduce the overall operational costs. 

DAR PRO Turns Your Waste into Cash Flow 

Every industrial plant is unique in its needs and requirements, so why wouldn’t your FOG recovery service schedule be the same? At DAR PRO, we tailor our collection method to best suit the needs of your facility—whether that means collection on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  

Our goal is for you to never have to think about grease or meat by-product collection as we believe you should focus on what is important—making your product. 

Enhance Your Brand with Sustainability Efforts 

Even better, DAR PRO repurposes all collected materials and transforms them into something of value. Used cooking oil can turn into feedstock for Diamond Green Diesel. This venture with Valero Energy is located in Norco, LA and is the largest renewable diesel plant in North America. 

Related Article: Sustainable Biofuel and Renewable Diesel Production. 

We can turn used cooking oil and meat by-products into ingredients that are used in a number of consumer products used each and every day. With us, not only are you getting a much-needed service, you are also boosting your sustainability efforts and enhancing your brand. 

Related Article: How Animal Fats and Used Cooking Oil are Recycled 

Get Money Back with Market-Based Rebates 

That’s why we also pay a competitive, market-based rebate for the material we collect. On top of improving your sustainability initiatives, we are improving your bottom line via the very same material that you need to get rid of anyway. 

Here’s How We Do It at DAR PRO 

Our decades of experience and investments in the necessary infrastructure and technology enable us to provide a solution to any facility, no matter the size, volume of production or footprint.  

Our process begins with a site survey. A trained expert will assess your facility’s procedures and identify loss points where grease or cooking oil is leaking into your drainage systems. Oftentimes, facilities are losing grease in areas they aren’t aware of. We evaluate the process, identify these deficiencies, and offer ways to improve the process—all at no additional cost to you.  

From there, our local plant will design a custom service solution for your operation. We have the ability to tailor our service to ensure your waste is handled in the most efficient way possible. We’ll work with you to install specialty tanks and customized FOG recovery equipment, as well as provide a tightly-monitored pick-up schedule. 

Learn more about our automated used cooking oil systems here. 

In essence, our service solves a two-pronged problem:  

• Increasing the amount of material collected, which means more cash flow for you because of the value of repurposed oil,  

• Decreasing the amount of waste that enters your drainage systems avoids additional treatment costs and cleanout charges. 

We can also provide tips for best practices when it comes to waste management. Contact us today to learn more.