Commercial kitchen exhaust effluent and treatment options Part 1

COMMERCIAL KITCHEN EXHAUST EFFLUENT & TREATMENT OPTIONS

Enjoying dinner at a restaurant with friends and family may seem like a very normal experience but behind delivering the meal to your table is the generation of airborne effluents resulting from the cooking process. This effluent is discharged to the exterior contributing to environmental pollution with detrimental effect on human health. This article examines the size of the New Zealand hospitality industry, the various cooking processes, the composition of airborne effluent and available control technologies.

The New Zealand Hospitality Industry

Data corresponding to the 2017 year is used for the purpose of illustrating the number of outlets likely to engage in food cooking in New Zealand. However, this number would be expected to have experienced a decline in the current covid environment. From 2018 to year ended March 2020 the hospitality industry experienced an average growth of 3.7% (1)

In 2017 the New Zealand hospitality industry had 17,328 businesses (2). Figure 1 and Figure 2 provide details on the number of outlets and per region.

In Australia in 2017 there were 35,911 cafés, restaurants and catering business (3).

It would be challenging to determine the number of kitchens worldwide, but Meals Matters estimated that in 2015 there were 1.5 billion (4). Considering this, it would be possible to have an appreciation of the magnitude of emissions being generated through the cooking process and their potential impact on the environment and human health on a global scale.

Read the full article in the Industry Journal, August 2022 issue