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New Restaurant Grease-Trap Technology Saves Water, Money

A manufacturer of wastewater treatment systems for restaurants and food service operations has developed a new pretreatment aeration system for restaurant grease traps. Read More

(Updated on July 24, 2024)

aero-life aeration systems, a manufacturer of wastewater treatment systems for restaurants and food service operations has developed a new pretreatment aeration system for restaurant grease traps. The system allows restaurants and food service operations to reduce their operational costs by as much as $10,000 per year using the system. In addition, because the waste inside grease traps often ends up in the city sewer system, surrounding communities may benefit.

“Food service operators can reduce their operational costs by as much as $10,000 per year using the system,” said Dean Keller, aero-life president. “In addition, the system has consistently demonstrated return on investment in less than one year, and often in a few months.”

aero-life currently has systems installed in more than 40 restaurants and food service operations in New Mexico, including local stores of national chains such as Applebee’s, Burger King, Church’s Chicken, Country Kitchen, Sizzler and Taco Bell. The company is in the process of building a team of distributors to market, install and service its systems nationally.

Developed in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories, aero-life’s new and unique application of aeration technology is designed to economically retrofit into restaurant grease traps. By increasing the levels of dissolved oxygen within the traps, the aero-life aeration system facilitates the efficient natural breakdown of waste material at its point of generation, reducing the energy and cost required to transport waste to a treatment facility. Higher oxygen levels within the grease trap also neutralize the acidic conditions created by normally anaerobic metabolism, leaving the effluent cleaner and less destructive to sewer systems. The systems require only 40 to 60 watts of 110V power.

“By reducing waste at it source, aero-life’s aeration system reduces the burden on municipal sewer systems, benefiting communities, businesses and consumers,” said Stuart Reeder, P.E., industrial waste engineer with the Pretreatment Section of the Wastewater Utility Division, Albuquerque Public Works Dept. “The benefits of a system like this are the reduction of loading on the collection system, the reduction of odors from the facility and the reduction of solid fats forming in grease traps.”

The AL series linear pumps used in the systems have been found to conform to the European Community’s Machinery Directive (CE) and are (UL) certified in compliance with U.S. and Canadian safety standards for household, commercial and industrial air compressors and vacuum pumps.

More information is available online.

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