Something Big is Coming

by Keith Loria (Biodiesel Magazine) City by city, Greasezilla is conquering problems derived from excessive fats, oils and grease waste. -- When fats, oils and grease (FOG) separation technology Greasezilla was developed by Downey Ridge Environmental Co. nearly 20 years ago, the system was never expected to become the impressive solution it has for wastewater treatment sites needing to manage the overabundance of FOG created by food establishments and industrial food production facilities worldwide. Ron Crosier, president of the Lansing, West Virginia-based company, has been in the liquid waste business—particularly with grease trap service—since 1995, and has witnessed the evolution of FOG treatment solutions. “Early on, we used existing technologies to deal with and dispose of grease trap waste—dewatering and landfilling—which were labor intensive and expensive with regard to polymers and landfill tipping fees,” he explains. “Another method we used was composting, which wasn’t the worst, but it was also very labor intensive.”

Eventually, the company started to use sawdust as a bulking agent. However, the advent of wood pellets brought sawdust prices from little-to-nothing, to too expensive to make sense for the job. “Rather than reverting back to drying boxes or any other dewatering technologies, we realized that if we could remove the brown grease component from grease trap waste, then the rest of the product was easy to dispose of,” Crosier says. “We knew there was some value in the brown grease, if for no other reason than the Btus that were in it.”

That led to the development of Greasezilla in 2008, though the company had no intention of marketing it at first; it simply looked to solve its own grease problem. Through contacts Crosier had in the sanitation industry, he realized that there was more value to the Greasezilla technology than just helping the company’s own interests. “We invested a significant amount of money and research and development to get to the place we had gotten to,” Crosier says. “We successfully applied for a patent and began marketing the technology to haulers. We sold a few units between 2010 and 2015, but quickly learned haulers just wanted to haul.”

The lightbulb went off that the real market for Greasezilla was most likely in the wastewater treatment industry, though the company knew it would need to make some changes to the system.“We did some engineering, especially in regards to automation, and sought out some investment capital, and relaunched a few years later,” Crosier says.

Understanding the Technology
Greasezilla’s ability to turn the problem of FOG waste into a sustainable energy source addresses larger infrastructure, environmental and energy issues. “We take grease trap waste, which is generally difficult to dispose of because of the brown grease, which is very detrimental to the ecology of anaerobic digesters. It doesn’t break down in wastewater plants and typically will pass through, with the only change being it’s been somewhat diluted,” Crosier says. “Some wastewater treatment plants are able to decant grease trap waste somewhat and then incinerate the grease, but that causes a lot of damage to the incinerators.”

Greasezilla’s hydronic thermal system takes grease trap waste in its trucked-in form and separates it without any polymers, flocculants or chemical treatment.

“The brown grease that our system produces will have a moisture content of under 1 percent, generally closer to half percent, so it is ready as a feedstock for biodiesel the moment it comes off the system.”

The heat for refining is generated by burning a small portion of the brown grease that is captured.

Currently, the company is working closely with wastewater treatment sites in New England, New York, New Jersey, the mid-Atlantic, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Texas, and expects to install a minimum of 10 new systems at wastewater plants by the end of 2023. “The production of the brown grease is just a wonderful side benefit to our technology,” Crosier says. “The primary purpose is to provide an efficient way of processing grease trap waste.”

Looking ahead further, Crosier would like to have a network of grease trap waste receiving stations all around the country, particularly around the coastal regions.

“I would also like to see us be more involved in exporting our technology,” he says. “We’ve been working heavily on exporting this technology to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, and hopefully Asia and Australia as well.” READ MORE