London water provider, Thames Water, in partnership with one of the city’s major utility companies 2OC, has announced plans to use leftover fat and cooking-oil waste from London eateries to create the world’s largest fat-fuelled power station.
A new partnership between London’s utility companies will use left-over grease and fat as the foundation for providing the city residents with renewable energy. (Image via biodieselmagazine.com)
Currently, the left-over “fat” clogs the city’s sewers and pipes — to the tune of nearly 80,000 blockages a year. As a result, Thames Water spends over $1 million a month clearing the city’s drains of all these stoppages.
The two companies expect to collect approximately 30 tons a day of solidified grease (which comes from cooking the likes of lamb, chicken, etc.) from fat traps in kitchens and pinchpoints in the city’s sewers.
Solidified grease from London’s kitchens will be used to provide the city with a new form of renewable energy. (Image via thekitchn.com)
They figure that this amount will provide more than half the fuel needed to power a plant — the other half will come from waste vegetable oil and collected animal fat waste (no virgin oils from field or plantation crops will be used to power the plant).
Planners involved in projecting the effectiveness of this project estimate that the plant will produce approximately 130 gigawatt-hours a year of renewable electricity. More or less, that’s about enough power to run 40,000 average-sized homes.
Waste heat from the plant’s two-stroke engine will be used in the adjacent gas pressure reduction station. This will, in turn, allow existing gas-fired boilers to be shut off. Additional renewable heat will be made available to all nearby housing schemes.
To get the project going, Thames Water has agreed to purchase 75 gigawatt-hours of this output to run Beckton sewage works, which serves 3.5 million people, as well as the neighboring desalination plant, which serves the locals in times of drought or emergency.
The rest of the power will be sold on to the National Grid.
Piers Clark, commercial director for Thames Water, reflected on the deal, saying, “This project is a win-win: renewable power, hedged from the price fluctuations of the non-renewable mainstream power markets, and helping tackle the ongoing operational problem of 'fatbergs' in sewers.”
The deal itself is a 20-year partnership between the two companies, estimated to be worth over $200 million. As a result of the agreement, a $70+ million plant is now being built in Beckton, east London to facilitate the project. It is expected to be operational by 2015.
“This is good for us, the environment, Thames Water, and its customers,” said Andrew Mercer, chief executive of 2OC. “Our renewable power and heat from waste oils and fats is fully sustainable. When Thames doesn't need our output, it will be made available to the grid meaning that power will be sourced, generated and used in London by Londoners.”
Story via: thameswater.co.uk
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