A fatberg is a congealed lump in a sewer system formed by the combination of non-biodegradable solid matter such as wet wipes with grease or cooking fat. Fatbergs may also contain other items which do not break down when flushed into a toilet, such as sanitary napkins, cotton buds, needles and condoms, as well as food waste washed down sinks. The resulting lumps of congealed fat can be as strong as concrete, and require specialist equipment to remove.
In some areas, such as London, fat blocked in a sewer can react with the lining of the pipe and undergo saponification, converting the oil into a solid, soaplike substance.
Fatbergs have been considered as a source of fuel, specifically biogas. The majority of a fatberg uncovered in Whitechapel, London, in 2017 was successfully converted into biodiesel.
Video Fatberg
Etymology
"Fatberg" is a portmanteau of fat + berg, modelled on iceberg. The term was in use among sewer managers by 2013. The word was added to Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2015. The deposits are officially referred to as fatbergs by authorities at Thames Water in London, England.
Maps Fatberg
Notable cases
- 6 August 2013: A fatberg roughly the size of a bus that weighed 15 tonnes (17 tons), consisting of food fat and wet wipes, was discovered in drains under London Road in Kingston upon Thames, London.
- 1 September 2014: A collection of waste, fat, wet wipes, food, tennis balls and wood planks the size of a Boeing 747 aeroplane was discovered and cleared by sanitation workers within a drain beneath a 260-foot (80 m) section of road in Shepherd's Bush, London.
- 3 September 2014: The sewerage system beneath Melbourne, Australia was clogged by a large mass of fat, grease and waste.
- January 2015: As part of a campaign against drain blocking, Welsh Water released a video showing a fatberg in drains in Cardiff.
- April 2015: A 40-metre-long (130 ft) fatberg was reported as having been removed from underneath Chelsea, London. It took over two months to remove the fatberg, and the damage it had caused was estimated to cost £400,000 to repair.
- July 2015: A 120-metre-long (390 ft) fatberg was discovered in the city of Welshpool in mid-Wales.
- January 2016: Blockage from a fatberg near Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia damaged the Eleebana sewage pumping station. The fatberg "weighed about one tonne (1.1 tons) and took four hours to remove" by crane.
- September 2017: A 250-metre-long (820 ft) fatberg weighing over 140 tonnes (150 tons) was found under Whitechapel, London. Even with workers working seven days a week at a cost of £1 million per month, officials said it could take as much as two months to destroy it. Two pieces of this fatberg were cut off on 4 October 2017 and, after several weeks of drying, displayed at the Museum of London from 9 February 2018 as part of the museum's City Now City Future season.
- September 2017: A fatberg of congealed fat, wet wipes, and waste was discovered under the streets of Baltimore, Maryland that caused sewer spillage of 1.2 million US gallons (4.5 million litres; 1.0 million imperial gallons) into Jones Falls.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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