Evaluation of grease-management alternatives for Army wastewater collection and treatment systems. Final report

Research was conducted to: determine the nature and extent of grease and oil problems at fixed Army installations, identify the installations' current oil- and grease-control practices, and evaluate these methods' effectiveness and cost, identify, from published information, commercially available grease- and oil-control methods (including chemical and biological additives) and establish their properties and applications, collect and evaluate case histories, and provide guidance for determining whether use of an alternative method would be cost-effective at military installations. A survey determined that over two-thirds of the installations responding experienced problems with grease and oil accumulation. Over 80% had problems at least monthly. Army-wide, thousands of dollars are spent each year on grease management. Mechanical-cleaning methods are labor-intensive and provide only a short-term solution; chemical cleaners are expensive and can be dangerous to treatment-plant workers and the environment. Commercially available biological additives for grease and oil control are identified and described. In addition, case histories are evaluated. Results indicate that the decision to use biological additives in controlling oil and grease accumulation should be made on a case-by-case basis. A procedure is proposed for helping installations calculate grease management costs and determine if use of an alternative technology would be cost-effective.