This seminar offers special pricing as part of ASCE Week Orlando.
Find out more about this annual event.

INSTRUCTOR:
Jeremiah D. Jackson, Ph.D., P.E.   

Purpose and Background

Fats, oils, and grease (FOG) from food preparation causes more sewer overflow problems than clogging tree roots, flushed debris, and hydraulic overloads combined.  Surprisingly, the main contributors to this problem are not restaurants, but private residences.  While serious, FOG is preventable.  This course presents a variety of proven approaches for controlling FOG, and gives its participants a useful background in their design, operation, and tradeoffs.

The course begins with an insightful background about FOG, including its sources, characteristics, and why it is a problem.  This background leads to control approaches, some of which are simple and involve no hardware, others involving moderate-to-large capital expense.  The primary focus is on FOG control in sanitary sewer infrastructure (SSI), and major engineer-oriented technologies.  Specific technologies include gravity grease interceptors (GGIs), hydromechanical grease interceptors (HGIs), and grease removal devices (GRDs).

During the discussion of control technologies, the participants will learn their design details and trade-offs.  Included will be simple design problems, and a discussion of siting and maintenance issues.  A more detailed look at precast concrete GGIs is also included, since this application is typical for new, large-scale developments.

The course is thus designed to give the participant a thorough understanding of FOG's sources, problems, and solutions.  Furthermore, the participant will leave with a basic knowledge of FOG mitigation technologies, their design, and trade-offs.

Seminar Benefits

• Understand the seriousness and cause of FOG, and how it affects sanitary sewer infrastructure
• Obtain an overview of simple and cost-effective approaches to mitigate FOG in residences and restaurants
• Learn the basics of engineered solutions to mitigate FOG
• Be able to perform sizing calculations for FOG mitigation systems
• Appreciate the various trade-offs in design, location, and operation for sewer system infrastructure FOG control technologies
• See photographs of typical FOG control technologies
• Learn how to follow accepted approaches for selecting precast concrete gravity grease interceptors 

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the sources, characteristics, and seriousness of FOG by seeing the results of city studies
• Learn the various FOG mitigating approaches by applying background information to brainstorm options in class
• Obtain detailed knowledge of leading FOG control technologies by exploring options, their trade-offs, and design basics
• Exercise this knowledge by performing basic sizing calculations for each FOG control technology
• Obtain feedback on the newly gained knowledge through an in-class exercise about the basics behind FOG mitigation in sanitary sewer infrastructure.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes