How Grease Collection Works

Grease collection is an important part of the recycling ecosystem in many towns across the United States. These services collect restaurant, and sometimes residential, grease and oils to be made into biofuels.

Restaurants And Residents Alike

The most important part of the grease recycling process to know is that these services are not only available to large producers of grease, such as restaurants, but also to residents of many cities, counties, and states across the country. Local governments have an incentive to provide grease collection services to their residents, as grease and oils poured down the drains can solidify and cause blockages in the sewer system. Plus, they can give (or sell) the collected grease to grease recycling services, which can then filter the grease so that it can be made into biofuels.

Filtered And Cleaned

Once the grease and oils have been collected, grease recycling services or centers can then purify the collected grease by testing for pesticides and other chemicals, removing and filtering any solids such as meat or other foods, and re-cooking the filtered grease before allowing it to dry so that the usable and non-usable fat separates from each other. This process makes sure that the biodiesel fuel can actually be made properly, as impure oil can interfere with the chemical processes that allow biodiesel to be made. Otherwise, you may as well be adding bits of old meat into your gas tank.

Biofuel Creation

Finally, the used grease, oils, and fats are made into biodiesel. Biodiesel and other biofuels can also be made from reusable plant life, but used cooking grease is frequently used simply because there is so much of it. Restaurants across the United States make up to three billion gallons of used cooking oil, which can help reduce the amount of land needed to make the oil crops for biofuels. New or processed oils and fats are combined with lye and methanol in specific ratios, and this mixture is allowed to separate into glycerin (which can be made into soap) and biodiesel. You can make this at home, with the proper set-up.

Grease collection services fill an important slot in the U.S. economy, collected used grease from restaurants and households, and sending it to processing centers. These processing centers filter the used oils so that it can be combined with lye and methanol to make biodiesel for automobiles everywhere. If you are interested in recycling your household grease, contact a grease collection service near you.