Cutting Costs: Comparing Oil Skimmers and Vacuum Truck Services

Summary

Industrial companies needing to remove fat, oil, or grease (FOG) from wastewater often choose between vacuum truck services and oil skimmers.

While vac trucks are versatile and suitable for large waste removal, they incur high long-term costs, disrupt operations, and fail to address continuous FOG buildup. In contrast, oil skimmers provide a cost-effective, continuous solution that improves wastewater management and equipment protection, reduces environmental impact, and offers potential revenue through recovered oil.

Case studies highlight significant savings and operational efficiency, such as a food plant saving $20,000 in its first year and a steel mill eliminating costly vac truck services with minimal maintenance. Oil Skimmers, Inc., a global leader in oil removal systems, offers proven solutions trusted in 121 countries, emphasizing sustainability, reliability, and customer support.

To the Plant Manager

Oil skimmers provide a continuous, hassle-free solution to keep operations running smoothly by efficiently removing oil from wastewater, protecting equipment, and reducing maintenance downtime.

To the CFO

Switching from costly vacuum truck services to oil skimmers prove to deliver substantial savings and a high return on investment by reducing operational costs and generating revenue from recovered oil.

Full Article

For any industrial company that needs to remove fat, oil, or grease (FOG) from its wastewater, its plant manager or maintenance manager is faced with deciding between a vac truck service or installing an oil skimmer.

While both will get the job done, the pros of using an oil skimmer over a vac truck far outweigh its cons in nearly every application. 

Let’s explore each.

Vacuum Truck Service

Vacuum trucks are primarily intended and used for cleaning up large spills, removing sanitary waste and debris, and many types of industrial cleaning. And while in theory they can be used to remove oil from water, vac trucks are far from a tenable solution because they were never designed or intended for oil water separation. Consider the following vac truck pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Versatility: Vacuum trucks handle a wide range of waste materials, including liquids, sludges, solids, and hazardous substances. These trucks can extract waste materials from confined spaces and hard-to-reach locations. (The right oil skimmer will also remove oil from confined and hard-to-reach places.) 
2. No equipment investment: Using a service eliminates the need to purchase and maintain your own equipment.
3. Designed and intended for large volume removal: Vacuum trucks are ideal for removing large quantities of waste in a single operation. 

Cons:

1. Higher long-term costs: Frequent use of vacuum truck services will be much more expensive over time compared to owning and operating an oil skimmer. Additionally, as vacuum trucks charge by volume, you’ll substantially overpay for each service because the vacuum will also unnecessarily remove large quantities of water along with the oil. 
2. The underlying issue is never resolved: Unlike continuous oil skimming, when a vac truck pulls away, oil immediately begins to re-accumulate in your pit/sump/basin/wastewater after each visit. In other words, vacuum trucks fail to address the problem of continuous fat, grease, and oil buildup.
3. Scheduling dependencies: You must rely on the availability of the service provider, which may not always align with your (urgent) need.
4. Disruption to operations: The presence of a vacuum truck and its operation disrupts production and normal business activities.

Oil Skimmers

As the name implies, oil skimmers (oftentimes coupled with oil water separators) skim oil from the surface of industrial process water and wastewater and drain it into a tank for disposal or recycling. (Decanters can also be used to maximize waste oil recovery.) 

The two most common and effective types of oil skimmers that meet the needs of nearly every industrial application are floating tube oil skimmers and floating weir skimmers.  

As you’ll note from the pros and cons listed below, oil skimmers satisfy all the needs industrial companies have for oil water removal that vac trucks cannot fulfill.

Pros:

1. Continuous operation: Oil skimmers can run continuously, providing constant removal of fat, oil, and grease from water surfaces. (Set it and forget it.)
2. Cost-effective: Over time, oil skimmers will significantly reduce operational costs by extending the life of process water and reducing maintenance requirements.
3. Improved plant operations: Oil skimmers help maintain optimal performance of filtration and wastewater treatment plants by consistently removing oil.
4. Revenue generation: Recovered oil can often be cleaned and recycled, potentially creating a new revenue stream—selling for profit to process into new petroleum products.
5. Environmental benefits: Oil skimmers help protect the environment by effectively removing surface oils and contaminants from water bodies.
6. Equipment protection: By removing surface oils, oil skimmers prevent premature wear and failure of equipment such as pumps, valves, and heat exchangers that lead to very costly plant shutdowns.
7. Eradicates concern of paying fees or fines: As oil skimmers run 24/7/365, wastewater is constantly refreshed and maintained.

Cons:

1. Initial investment: Purchasing and installing an oil skimmer system requires an upfront cost. (However, when compared to the ongoing cost of a vac truck service, an oil skimmer will pay for itself many times over, showing a significant ROI.)
2. Limited to surface fat, oil, and grease: Oil skimmers are most effective for removing floating oils and may not be suitable for submerged contaminants.
3. Maintenance requirements: While generally minimal, oil skimmers will expectedly require periodic maintenance and occasional part replacements.

Success Stories: The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Food Production Plant Saves $20,000 in First Year with Oil Skimmer

A large U.S. food production plant specializing in tamales faced challenges managing high volumes of wastewater, which contained significant grease from cooking various meats. The facility lacked an efficient way to continuously remove grease from its 2,500-gallon oil/water separation tank. 

Occasional visits from costly vacuum trucks to skim grease off the surface proved insufficient, allowing oily water to be discharged into the municipal water treatment system. This led to expensive wastewater testing and treatment fees. To avoid these costs, the plant would have needed daily vacuum truck services—an impractical and expensive solution.

To address the issue, the plant installed the Oil Skimmer, Inc. ESS® Fully Enclosed Skimming System. The system immediately began recovering 275 gallons of grease weekly, turning a waste product into a valuable resource. 

The recovered grease is now sold for profit, while the company saves $8,000 annually by eliminating vacuum truck services. In the first year of operation, the plant achieved approximately $20,000 in total savings, excluding the additional revenue from selling the recovered grease.

Steel Mill Conserves Water and Saves Money

A mini-mill in Northern Indiana faced challenges with oil removal from two basins and a scale pit used for processed cooling water. One basin had a capacity of 490,000 gallons, while the other held 285,000 gallons. The mill relied on a vacuum truck service to extract the oil, but between service visits, waste oil accumulated in the scale pit and basins, forming sludge in the cooling towers and compromising the quality of the end product.

The periodic oil removal provided by the vacuum truck service was both costly and inefficient, lacking the benefit of continuous oil removal. After installing six Oil Skimmers, Inc. tube skimmers, the plant now recovers 150 gallons of high-quality lubrication oil daily. This innovation not only eliminated the expense of the vacuum truck service, which hauled away water along with the waste oil, but also significantly reduced maintenance costs, delivering an immediate return on investment (ROI).

“The tube skimmers can run continuously with minimal attention. They are relatively maintenance-free and remarkably trouble-free,” said the plant's mechanical engineer.

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About Oil Skimmers, Inc.

Oil Skimmers, Inc. (OSI) is a global leader in designing and manufacturing efficient, low-maintenance oil skimmers, oil-water separators, and oil removal systems trusted by industries worldwide for over 50 years.

With a proven presence in 121 countries and a track record of addressing more than 38,000 applications, OSI delivers innovative, customized solutions to ensure environmental compliance and operational efficiency.

Backed by patented technologies like the Free-Floating Collector Tube® and a worldwide network of experts, OSI is committed to quality, reliability, and exceptional customer support.

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Contact Oil Skimmers, Inc. today to speak with an oil removal expert or read more about the benefits of tube oil skimmers.