Grease skimmed off the East Providence primary tank is collected in a 7000 gallon grease pit. Click here to enlarge imageCellinite BioTabsTM are a solid tablet treatment for wastewater that uses a patented oxygen delivery system to support aerobic bacteria in the breakdown of organic solid waste and grease. When dropped in a wastewater stream, the tablets sink to the bottom where they begin to super-oxygenate the wastewater from the bottom up. Buffers, nutrients, and aerobic bacterial spores are distributed throughout the wastewater in the oxygen plume created by the effervescing tablets. This begins the breakdown of organic waste and grease throughout the collection system.
The East Providence (RI) wastewater treatment facility found Cellinite BioTabs to be a cost-effective solution to its maintenance of a grease collection pit.
Grease skimmed off the plant’s primary tank is collected into a 7000 gallon grease pit. Prior to using the tablets, the grease pit had to be pumped out approximately four times a year to keep the grease pit effective. To pump out the tank, a septage hauler would be used at $100 per hour at a cost of $339 per 9000-gallon tank. The grease was then transferred to another treatment facility were it cost $345 per percentage of grease solid. In East Providence’s case, that would average 12 to 17 percent solids per transfer. Altogether, it cost approximately $4600 per maintenance event and about $17,000 annually.
In addition, the large amount of grease degrading in the grease pit resulted in noxious odors that were followed by complaints from the neighborhood.
Thomas Azevedo, Assistant Superintendent Water Pollution Control, witnessed how Cellinite BioTabsTM reduced hydrogen sulfide levels in a force main in the Town of Barrington and wanted to try the tablets to help ease his maintenance of the grease pit.
East Providence began applying six tablets twice a week on Monday and Thursday. The grease pit and its contents were then mixed with a portable mixer for 60 minutes to ensure proper blending. On Tuesdays and Fridays all of the free liquid was decanted from the pit and returned to the primary tank.