Press Release

12 Apr 2010 - Conference calls for legislation review to keep sewers ‘fat free’

A specialist conference organised by Cranfield University to educate wastewater, catering, public health and environmental professionals on the effective management and removal of fats, oils and greases (FOGs) in drainage systems has called for re-formulation of legislation concerning food service establishments disposal of FOG,  as existing legislation has been shown to be ineffective in dealing with the problem.

Sponsored by Anglian Water, the conference at Cranfield University campus entitled ‘FOGs build up removal - problems and solutions’, included expert speakers from Purdue University and North Carolina State University in the US.

Fats, oils and greases are responsible for up to 75% of the 200,000 drain blockages throughout the UK every year, while Water UK estimates that about £15 million is spent annually on reactive blockage clearance nationwide, with further costs for clean-up after flooding incidents.

Martin Fairley, a part-time PhD student at Cranfield and director of ACO Building Drainage called for the formation of a trade organisation to help to structure an industry wide coherent approach to the FOG problem.

He said: “It is a very fragmented industry and I believe there is very little science being applied, and therefore much opportunity to develop a far more robust understanding of the issues from which credible solutions will evolve. I use the term ‘trade association’ in a loose way. I am looking to join together opinions of manufacturers with some integrity who would welcome some scientific rigour, with other key stakeholders.

The association, which received water company industry support at the conference, would ideally involve representatives from manufactures, food service and catering equipment suppliers, water utilities and academia.

Steve Kaye, Manager of Innovations, Anglian Water, said: “FOG should be considered a valuable resource. If it can be prevented from entering sewers, it can be used to make biofuel or digested to generate electricity”.

Anyone interested in having their views heard can contact Martin Fairley on mfairley@aco.co.uk 

ENDS

Further information

Anglian Water estimates that at any one time there is 10,000 tonnes of fat in its network of sewers, enough to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools. If converted this would make enough biodiesel to fuel 8,000 family cars for a year.

Cranfield University is a wholly postgraduate institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence and expertise in aerospace, automotive, defence, engineering, environment and water, health, management and manufacturing. Research on the behaviour, separation and degradation of fats in grease removal units is being conducted under the guidance of Dr Raffaella Villa (Lecturer in Bioprocess Technology) and Dr Bruce Jefferson (Reader in Water Science). Dr Villa said "There is a major lack of understanding about how these materials behave in grease traps and sewers and much more work is needed in order to find effective solutions to this important - but often unseen - problem".

ACO manufacture drainage products including EN 1825 compliant separators. Despite the commercial interest, Martin Fairley views the Standard as difficult to implement when a large proportion of food service establishments operate in small premises with no room for a compliant separator, suggesting  “Out of necessity they will seek alternative solution.”


For more details contact Fiona Siebrits at Cranfield on email: f.c.siebrits@cranfield.ac.uk or tel: +44 (0) 1234 758040 or Anglian Water’s media office tel: 0871 6770123  

Press release number: PR-09-10-SAS