Oil Removal Solutions Blog

Steelmaking is a competitive industry with a wide range of external factors that could inhibit operations. These include global market conditions, raw material prices, environmental standards and government regulations.

Luckily, there are ways in which the operation of steel mills can be significantly improved with a small investment. One of the easiest ways to achieve that is by installing an effective and efficient oil removal system.

Manufacturing steel produces a large amount of both solid and oily waste that get mixed into the wastewater. By implementing proper water treatment and oil skimming systems, a substantial part of these materials can be recovered and potentially reused. At the most basic level, removing oil from water in your scale pit or discharge ponds will help your steel plant run more effectively and efficiently.

There is a universal problem facing the food and beverage industry: removing fat, oil and grease (FOG) from water.

Without an effective oil removal solution, food and beverage companies can face increased costs for water treatment and discharge, maintenance concerns, and also miss out on the opportunity for a new revenue source.

To identify a proper solution, you must first pinpoint the source of the problem. View the infographic below to see how FOG originates across eight food industry segments, including:

1. Farm equipment, from lubricants and hydraulic oil
2. Oil extraction, from plant, seeds and nuts
3. Oil transport, from edible oils carried in tank trucks
4. Oil used for cooking as an ingredient
5. Fat, oil and grease from meat and fish
6. Oil from manufacturing food packaging
7. Seamer machine lubricant from canning foods and beverages
8. Fat, oil and grease from cooking food for consumption

Check out the infographic below for details.

Removing oil from any industrial process is important. Animal fats, grease and petroleum-based oils all have a significant impact on both overall maintenance and environmental compliance of an operation.

Hence why oil refineries, chemical plants, steel mills and many other types of companies throughout the world use oil/water separators. This flow-through device takes advantage of the fact that oil has a lower density than water, causing it to float on the water’s surface, to separate oil from the wastewater.

But isolating the waste oil is only part of the wastewater treatment equation. An area where oil/water separators commonly fall short is efficient removal of the oil after the separation occurs.

This is where oil skimming comes in.

If you’re in the market for an oil removal solution, you already know that there are various types of oil skimmers. But did you know that choosing the wrong skimmer type can result in poor oil removal? This, in turn, can lead to maintenance issues, health and safety risks, and failure to comply with environmental regulations, among other serious business implications.

To avoid these problems and to help you make the right skimmer choice for your particular application, we’ve covered a few questions that you should ask before making a purchase.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Do you have an oil removal problem? You’re not alone, and there is a steadfast solution. Read on to see how one mining and tunneling company solved its oil issues— within five hours of installing a new solution.

Excess oil in manufacturing processes can have detrimental effects to overall operations, as it:

• Shortens the life of machining coolant
• Can result in costly equipment malfunctions and maintenance
• Can affect the quality of finished parts

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Oil skimming can save manufacturers thousands of dollars in maintenance issues and ensure that finished products are the best quality possible.

Oil skimmers remove tramp oil from coolant or parts-washing solutions before it can cause problems downstream. The process is easy to execute, affordable and can provide multiple benefits to those in the manufacturing industry. Below, we’ve highlighted three key ways oil skimming directly contributes to a smoother manufacturing process.