h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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Run miles heating coils down crucial sewer drains.with
automatic thermostats. Would prevent oils from solidifying
that cause fatbergs.
Costly but would reduce the need for emergency response
down there and the even more expensive human labour.
Obviously the energy use would be unpopular
so it would have
to also run on the colected fatberg energy.
[link]
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Hmmm ... fatberg harvesting ? Burn the fat as a renewable biofuel ? Make biodiesel ? |
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Why can't it be burnt in situ? The biggest fatbergs are often
in brick-lined sewers that could probably take the heat, and
partial burning would provide the heat to melt the rest. |
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You might need to run some oxygen lines down to get it going
well. |
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//Why can't it be burnt in situ? // |
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I vote we ventilate the outgasing somewhere on the far
edges of the Buchanan estate, so as not to be close enough
to the manor for the smell to waft in, on most days... |
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Either sewers need to be well-ventilated, which keeps the methane concentration below the LEL but spreads the pong far and wide (the french & Belgian method) or nearly airtight, so that the methane level is well above the HEL (but the gas then becomes asphyxiant due to oxygen deficiency). |
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If the mix is somewhere in between then the mixture doesn't just burn, it detonates. In a sewer pipe, an effect called "pressure piling" occurs and the flame-front rapidly goes supersonic. And then, not to put too fine a point on it, shit happens. Manhole covers get launched amazing distances, toilet U-bends "blow back", other underground services are disrupted, and roadways collapse. |
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Melting the fatbergs with steam and extracting the resultant oily liquid would be best; explosion-proof electric heaters are bulky and expensive, whereas steam is inherently safe. |
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//Melting the fatbergs with steam and extracting the
resultant oily liquid would be best// But you just said that
burning them could cause amazing explosions. |
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The methane, not the fatbergs - please, do try to keep up. |
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As you very well know, anaerobic digestion of sewage by bacteria releases methane. This process is exploited on a commercial scale. |
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Clearing away fatbergs using nothing more than
teaspoons could be a punishment of particular
dread for certain crimes. |
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The obvious one being "disposing of waste oil and fat down the drains". |
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But tracking down the culprits would be challenging. |
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Scoop out cylindrical cores of the fatberg with remote boring
tools, dip in batter, deep-fry then sell in Southern USA,
Scotland, etc. Supply and demand will be in some sort of
weird symbiotic, sine-wave cycle. |
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You're suggesting selling partially decayed, congealed lipids retrieved from sewers and then deep fried - to the scotch ? |
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It's not an unreasonable business proposition, but we question if there is sufficient demand for that sort of "Haute Cuisine" as they would term it to the north of Hadrian's Wall. You would need to tap into the population of sophisticated, discriminating Caledonians ... why not start with something easy, like finding the Loch Ness monster ? |
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