Fatbergs Might Be Useful After All

A model of one of London's fatbergs, showing its size compared to humans.

Fatbergs.  Those pesky lumps of fat, oil and grease (FOG's) that are wreaking havoc on London's sewer system and creating problems in other cities as well.  (A past post discussed wipes that were flushed down the toilet and how they added to the problem and the Facebook page, Custodial Soupcon,  had a post dealing with fatbergs when they were first discovered.) These fatbergs have recently been discovered in sewer systems due to the amount of FOG's, wet wipes and soiled diapers that get flushed away every day.  Maintenance workers have been chipping away at removing them, one which is over 850 feet long and weighing more than 143 tons.  Until now, disposal of these fatbergs was ominous.  However, with a little further research and some out-of-the-box thinking, scientists have devised a way that they can be used as bio-fuel which would create much lower carbon emissions than other fuels.  The full story can be found at inverse.com.