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Oil vs. Bacillus

If you’re in the business of keeping your customers’ kitchens running safe and clean, you’re aware of the impact cooking oil can have over time on drains and pipes. A lot of fats, oils, and grease (FOG) can build up in systems like grease traps, sewage systems and industrial systems. Eventually, the FOG from both commercial and residential food preparation can accumulate in pipes and lead to major issues like sewer overflows, problems at pumping stations and odors. Let us now introduce you to your new best friend, Bacillus – a type of bacteria that thrives on the rich nutrients found in FOG.

At MDG, we created a Bacillus-based treatment called SporActiv® for the janitorial and sanitation market that effectively digests FOG through bioaugmentation. Using a Bacillus-based solution instead of physical or chemical treatments is cost-effective in that it helps reduce the need for cleaning or pumping FOG from grease traps and lift stations.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of our Bacillus at reducing FOG, we conducted a lab experiment, where we added olive oil or vegetable oil to liquid media, treated with SporActiv® Core, and measured the bacterial activity. There was an increase in bacterial activity in the presence of all three types of oil, indicating that the Bacillus were able to use the oils as a food source (Figure 1). These experiments demonstrate that our SporActiv® Bacillus are able to use different types of FOG as food sources to promote bacterial activity resulting in digestion and removal of FOG.

If you’d like to learn more about our Bacillus-based SporActiv® products and how as a manufacturing partner we can help support you with research, contact us and one of our representatives will reach out to you. We’ve Got Your Bac!

Figure 1. Bacterial activity of SporActiv® Core in the presence of different types of oils. Increased activity indicates SporActiv® Bacillus are able to use oils as a food source.

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