Automated Cooking Oil Storage and Recycle System

该项目旨在开发一个智能智能系统，用于在快餐店和使用大量食用油的工厂等商业餐饮场所安全储存废食用油。该系统将允许及时有效地收集废物，并将其带走并回收到生物柴油中。传统上，废食用油储存在大型垃圾箱或商业厨房的开放桶中，需要工作人员手动处理热油或在厨房中提起桶，从而产生烧伤，溢出，滑倒和其他事故的风险。我们设计并开发了符合当前健康和安全法规的储罐系统，并建造了原型，正在现场试用。我们现在希望在当前工作的基础上，通过开发基于物联网的控制和场外监控系统，并内置遥测测量水平和系统状态，为客户带来更多好处。该系统将允许快餐店和食品工厂自动处理废食用油。基于物联网的系统将提供非现场监控和警报，确保废物收集者仅在需要时才能安全地清除废物，从而减少不必要的卡车滚动，从而减少对环境的影响。此外，收款公司和客户都可以监控石油使用情况，确保石油回扣和使用的透明度。远程通信将允许非接触式收集，同时防止盗窃并提供系统诊断以确保一致的性能。根据英国广播公司的一篇文章，废弃食用油的盗窃每年使财政部损失约2500万英镑。与我们合作的公司运营着一个符合最高环境标准的生物精炼厂。它生产的生物柴油更加可持续，因为炼油厂有一个完整的厌氧消化装置，可以产生运行所需的热量和电力。两者都是从客户收集的不同废物中进料的，这有效地为那些提供用过的食用油并购买所得生物柴油的客户创造了一个闭环回收过程。目前在英国还没有这样的智能系统，但有一个系统是从美国进口的。有一项专利覆盖美国市场，但不在美国以外。如果我们能够在英国制造该系统，我们就可以减少进口，并有机会向欧洲供应。

The project is to develop a smart intelligent system for safely storing waste cooking oil at commercial catering premises such as fast food restaurants and factories that have a high use of cooking oil. The system would allow for timely and efficient collection of the waste to be taken away and recycled into biodeisel. Traditionally waste cooking oil is stored in large bins or open barrels in commercial kitchens which requires staff to manually handle hot oils or lift the barrels in the kitchen creating a risk of burns, spillages, slips and other accidents.We have designed and developed a storage tank system that meets the current Health & Safety regulations and built prototypes which are being trialed in the field. We now want to build on current work and deliver additional customer benefits by developing an IoT based control and offsite monitoring system with built in telemetry measuring level and system status. This system would allow the automated handling of waste cooking oils within fast food outlets and food factories. The IoT based system would provide offsite monitoring and alerts enabling timely collections ensuring the waste collectors can remove the waste safely only when required, removing unnecessary truck rolls and therefore reducing the impact on the environment. In addition both the collection company and their customer could monitor the oil usage ensuring transparency in oil rebates and usage. Remote communication would allow for contactless collections whilst preventing theft and providing system diagnostics to ensure consistent performance. According to an article by the BBC theft of waste cooking oil costs the Treasury approx £25M a year in lost duty. The company we are working with operates a biorefinery to the very highest environmental standards. The biodiesel it produces is made even more sustainable because the refinery has an integral anaerobic digestion plant that generates the heat and power required to run it. Both are fed from different wastes collected from customers which effectively creates a closed loop recycling process for those customers who provide used cooking oil and purchase the resulting biodiesel.Currently there is no intelligent system like this in the UK but there is a system being imported from the USA. There is a patent covering the USA market but not outside of the USA. If we can manufacture the system in the UK we can reduce imports and have the opportunity to also supply to Europe.