Thames Water plans to convert the 250-metre “monster” Whitechapel fatberg discovered earlier this month, into around 10,000 litres of biodiesel.
The congealed mass of fat, oil and grease discovered blocking an east London sewer will create enough environmentally-friendly energy to power 350 double-decker Routemaster buses for a day, the company said.
Around a third of the 130-tonne fatberg, has been removed from the sewers beneath Whitechapel Road, since its discovery.
Thames Water engineers expected to complete the unclogging process within three weeks, but now anticipate it will be finished in October, due to the damage caused to the Victorian sewer.
The fatberg is being broken apart with high-powered jet hoses and sucked out with tankers, before it is transferred to a specialist plant to be processed and transformed into biodiesel.
Other items such as baby wipes, nappies, cotton buds and sanitary products, which should never have been flushed away, will be disposed of.
Alex Saunders, Thames Water waste network manager, said: “It may be a monster, but the Whitechapel fatberg deserves a second chance. We’ve therefore teamed up with leading waste to power firm Argent Energy to transform what was once an evil, gut-wrenching, rancid blob into pure green fuel.
“It’s the perfect solution for the environment and our customers as we work towards our target to self-generate 33 per cent of the electricity we use from renewable sources by 2020. It also means the Whitechapel fatberg will get a new lease of life as renewable, biodegradable fuel powering an engine instead of causing the misery of sewer flooding.”
The project with Argent Energy, which already helps to power bus fleets in the supply area, will run alongside Thames Water’s ‘Bin it – don’t block it’ campaign.
Saunders said fatbergs were previously extracted out of the pipes and sent to landfill, or broken down and put back through the sewage treatment process.
He added: “Even though they are our worst enemy, and we want them dead completely, bringing fatbergs back to life when we do find them in the form of biodiesel is a far better solution for everyone.”
The Whitechapel fatberg was longer than two Wembley football pitches and around 10 times bigger than the Kingston monster found in 2013.