Brown grease collection unit helps provide low-cost feedstock
Photo: Bio-Energy Holdings Inc.
April 20, 2012
BY Ron Kotrba
Bio-Energy Holdings Inc. has developed a brown grease collection process unit available for restaurants, trademarked the A-Ceptor, to help avoid clogged grease traps, fines and sewer problems. The unit, which the company says is modular, free-standing, externally self-contained and serviceable, collects and processes brown grease before it has a chance to become a restaurant trap problem. The A-Ceptor can also collect and process used cooking oils without any modification.
The unit, invented by Bio-Energy Holdings CEO Pete Chapin, is designed to sit outside of a restaurant and be serviceable 24/7, and it is housed in a military-grade container to thwart would-be grease thieves. The A-Ceptor has four compartments that separate the solids and water out of the grease, leaving a final product that is 98 percent pure brown grease.
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Bio-Energy Holdings is looking to partner with biodiesel producers for the supply of low-cost brown grease feedstock. The company has developed its own biodiesel conversion process but Chapin said rather than competing with the biodiesel industry, the company would like to contribute to it instead.
Chapin said whoever owns the A-Ceptor unit owns the grease, so arrangements can be made between the restaurant, haulers and potential biodiesel producers as best they see fit. The units are leasable or can be purchased for $20,000 to $30,000.
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Chapin detailed a recent case study of how the A-Ceptor unit helped a New Jersey restaurant. He said he was contacted by a friend to solve a sewer discharge problem in which oil and grease were being discharged into a local sewer plant in East Brunswick, N.J. The problem stemmed from a recently updated 300-seat oriental-style sushi restaurant, in which the architect had specified a 1,000-gallon grease trap to be installed under the driveway. The local sewer authority, which enforces compliance ordinances, said the restaurant was exceeding the allowable limits of 100 parts per million (ppm) for oil and grease (O/G) levels, and 225 ppm for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), a measurement of the amount of food organic carbons that bacteria can oxidize. Tests at the grease trap discharge of the newly renovated restaurant were running at 1,800 ppm for O/G and 2,600 ppm BOD. The restaurant was being fined $2,500 per week for noncompliance.
Seeking a fast solution to avoid bankruptcy and law suits, the restaurant turned to Chapin, and his organization, for a solution. Chapin and his company proceeded to install its patented A-Ceptor system to assist in solving the problem. After installing the unit, the restaurant was brought into compliance the next day.
Bio-Energy Holdings will be participating in the annual Earth Day celebration event in the borough of Clarks Summit, Pa., on Saturday, April 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. BEH will be introducing and demonstrating the A-Ceptor unit.
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