American Licorice
The maker of world famous licorice products, American Licorice Co. of Union City, CA has been in operation since 1914. Around 1988, the local sewer authority informed the factory that it was out of compliance with the strict limits imposed by its pretreatment program. Expensive surcharges to the facility were inevitable. The cause of this oily situation: the licorice pan wash area in the factory. Long strands of licorice are laid out upon greased pans and run through an oven. At the end of this assembly, the licorice is removed and the pans are sent through a pan washer. The residual grease and oils were released into the sewer line, causing headaches for the Union City sewer authority.
Facing heavy fines from the sewer department, American Licorice sought a solution in order to avoid these costs. Maintenance-intensive passive traps had been used previously, with little effect. According to Jose Loza, Maintenance Supervisor for the facility and a 30-year veteran in the field, the factory became familiar with Big Dipper Automatic Grease & Oil Removal Units early in 1989 at a local trade show. "We wanted to make sure that all grease and oils were taken out of our pan washer effluent before they could reach the sewer lines, because the sewer people were checking the lines on a weekly basis."
The solution was to install two T-unit Big Dippers on their automated conveyor washing lines in the middle of 1989. After installation and testing, the Big Dipper units lowered the grease and oil samplings from 650 ppm to around 175 ppm, well below the sewer district's 300 ppm limit. These early generation T-units (which utilized a large, curved blade to remove grease & oils) operated flawlessly for ten years before being upgraded to three newer generation W-200-IS (Product Catalog) wheeled units in 1999.
"The units operate up to seventeen hours a day, servicing each of our three pan washers. They are set to run at the same time as the washers. We spend about twenty minutes each week on routine maintenance, much less than we could expect with any passive manual trap." Jose estimates that each unit is removing around three gallons of grease every two to three days.
As for the sewer district and its strict pretreatment program? Says Loza, "They still check on our lines every month. We haven't had any complaints from our quality control department, and they are the ones who hear bad news from the sewer people." No news is good news.
American Licorice Co. has been serviced by Big Dipper equipment for almost fifteen years, and Jose Loza expects efficient grease removal to continue for the next fifteen. "We are happy with our Big Dipper systems, and the sewer authority is happy with us."