“Fatbergs” In London Sewers To Be Transformed Into Electricity

May 14th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan

This job is not for those with a weak stomach. The man in the picture below is Danny Brackley, a sewer flusher. He is shoveling out a “fatberg” from under Leicester Square.

Image Credit: Thames Water

Oil and fat accumulating under the streets of London is apparently causing a bit of an issue. However, the city is going to burn these fatbergs in order to create electricity — about 130 GWh of electricity per year. A power station at Beckton in east London will be the one to burn the fatbergs.

Supposedly, there’s no smoke and no smell from the burning of the fatbergs.

“The water company has agreed to buy 75 GWh of this output to run Beckton sewage works, which serves 3.5 million people, and the nearby desalination plant, operated in times of drought or other emergencies,” BBC notes.

By the way, if you think Danny Brackley is one lonely, sad fatberg shoveler, you’re a bit wrong. There are 40 such shovelers that go around shoveling fatbergs. They clear out about 80,000 blockages a year. The work costs approximately $1.5 million per month.

The fatbergs are created by cooking oil and grease that cools and congeals down in the sewers. However, there’s more in there than that. Rob Smith, Thames Water’s technical coordinator, notes that they contain “everything that goes into the sewer and lots of things that shouldn’t.” Now that a utility has a use for these monsters, it’s going to have “fat traps” installed under the sinks of contributing restaurants.

You have to wonder how many fatbergs are living under the streets of other cities. Will others follow London’s lead?

Check out more “waste to energy” stories here.

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Tags: england, fat to electricity, fatbergs, London, London fat to electricity, London fatbergs, W2E, Waste-To-Energy

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Logan

He looks miserable, but I’m sure he gets a hefty paycheck.
Bill_Woods

1.2 $/W — not bad.

But why not make bio-diesel?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dill-Weed/100000216524046 Dill Weed

Ole Danny boy finally made it!
http://www.facebook.com/jhildenminton James Hilden-Minton

Hats off to Danny and all the fatberg shovelers.
Kevin Adams

Thank goodness fat floats. Can you imagine those sewers if it didn’t?

“Lennie said softly, “We could live offa the fatta the lan’.” -Of Mice and Men
Bob_Wallace

And this, children, is another reason you want to get an education.

Otherwise you could end up being a fatberg shoveler. Add that to the list of jobs including dead cow disassembler , fatburger flipper, ….
- Ronald Brak
  
  This comment would be less tragic if I didn’t remember Danny from my years at Eton.
Ross

There’s a great Seven Wonders of the Industrial World BBC documentary ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Industrial_World#The_Sewer_King ) about the creation of the London sewer system and its brilliant Chief Engineer Joseph Bazalgette.
http://www.facebook.com/jordan.duke.54 Jordan Duke

If only there was a grease trapping machine that could catch the grease before it became a problem.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  That’s what they’re planning to install at many or most of these restaurants. (note in the article, but a bit far down.) good thinkin.
http://twitter.com/energyforlondon EnergyforLondon

This is a really fascinating project – involving a number of exciting innovations and – if it goes ahead! – will be a model scheme for many cities to consider! Much more on the background to this complex initiative here: http://www.energyforlondon.org/heatheatpowerpower/