Transpacific granted patent for grease-trap wastewater solution

Transpacific Industries Group has been granted a patent for its innovative solution to reduce and re-use wastewater taken from grease traps. The company’s Thomastown Grease Trap Treatment Plant in Victoria has adopted a new process and mechanical device to screen, filter and separate wastewater components, allowing it to be treated and re-used.

Plant Manager Steve Danielidis treats liquid waste collected from grease traps around Melbourne as part of his work for Transpacific’s Technical Services division, which provides liquid and hazardous waste solutions to users. It is a legal requirement that fats, food-grade oils, water and food waste produced by retail and industrial customers are captured and separated onsite in grease traps in order to prevent this waste from going down the drain and potentially blocking the city’s sewerage.

Transpacific’s vehicles vacuum out the contents of grease traps before transporting more than 40 million litres to the Thomastown Plant every year. But the old system and equipment required a large volume of waste to be taken off site and disposed, as a process did not exist to separate and treat and/or recover components at the one facility, which resulted in hundreds of long-haul, emissions-emitting truckloads from the plant every year.

With the help of the Thomastown team, Danielidis devised a more efficient treatment process which “involves a number of complex and tailored processes that combine specific pressures and temperatures to breakdown the wastewater,” according to Transpacific’s Group Manager for Research and Innovation, Dr Peter Isdale. The mechanical devices separate the waste by-products through filtration, thermal treatment and mechanical centrifugal forces. The process then separates the four layers in the feedstock, allowing fats/oils/grease/solids and water to be separated, leaving clean water, low-grade tallow product and dry solids.

In early 2012 Danielidis brought his idea to management, who approved a trial with hired machines and some outside engineering expertise. Dr Isdale said that, following the trial’s success, Transpacific approved the construction and commissioning of the new process in the plant, with the new equipment increasing the processing capacity of the sludge by approximately 200%.

“The introduction of this innovative technology results in an approximate 80% reduction of off-site waste that can now be recovered as clean water in the Thomastown plant,” said Dr Isdale.

“Of the remaining waste, half is then able to be sold as a low-grade tallow product, which can be used to produce things like soap and animal feed, helping to further close the recycling loop.” It is expected that the remainder will be handled by Transpacific’s subsidiary Cleanaway in its composting operations at Brooklyn, Melbourne.

Dr Isdale said the patenting of the technology strengthens Transpacific’s reputation as an innovator and industry leader. The process now been adopted in the company’s other grease-trap treatment plants at Padstow in NSW and Yatala in Queensland, which are double the capacity of the Thomastown plant.

Danielidis thanked his staff for their eager participation in the project, saying, “It’s fine for me to have an idea, but it is only with the enthusiasm and dedication of all involved that it gets done.”