This invention relates to improvements in installations of separators for the removal and recovery of fat, oil and/or grease (hereinafter referred to as oil/grease) found in effluent discharge of restaurants, food processing, or like facilities, or other circumstances involving mixtures of oil/grease to be recovered or removed.
Oil/grease removal or recovery systems are well known. Sewer system lines can become clogged from the oil/grease waste materials put into the sewer system from food handling facilities. This has led more and more sewer authorities to implement fats, oils and grease control programs. These programs regulate food handling facilities and the manner in which they process oil/grease. The object of many of these programs is to ensure that food handling facilities remove as much of the oil/grease as possible from the effluent flow, thereby releasing only grey water, perhaps with solids, to the sewer system. Various systems have been developed for such oil/grease removal. One supplier of such systems is Thermaco, Inc. in Asheboro, N.C., selling a product under the mark BIG DIPPER@. The oil/grease separators are supplied with effluent, usually from the kitchen sink, and perform their function of removing oil/grease from the water and direct the remaining water, called grey water, to a drain that leads to sewage facilities.
The oil/grease separator is usually mounted on the kitchen floor under or near the sink. These separators can be vessels that are 2–3 feet wide and 3–4 feet long, or various other sizes, so that traffic flow through the kitchen indicates their placement in out-of-the-way areas, again such as under a sink, and typically near a wall.
In addition to the maintenance of sewer lines, restaurants and other food processors must consider good sanitation. Kitchen cleanups usually include mopping the floors to remove spilled foods or other items. However, the floor between the oil/grease separator and the wall may be very difficult or impossible to reach by a person wielding a mop, particularly if it is under the sink. And, it may be difficult to look behind the oil/grease separator to see that the floor has, in fact, been satisfactorily cleaned. As a result, a need has arisen as to how to satisfy sanitation concerns of restaurant operators and governmental inspectors without introducing costly measures for reaching behind the oil/grease separators or otherwise cleaning the floor.