UK first trials of a cutting-edge fats, oils and grease Recovery Hub at Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works in Hull are helping the company to improve environmental performance while lowering costs, says Chris Clemes, chief executive of engineering technology company EcoClarity.
And that means waste fats and oils could be converted into biodiesel to fuel Yorkshire Water’s van fleet.
Yorkshire Water’s waste services manager James Gudgeon said: “We are working with EcoClarity towards the potential nirvana of being able to harvest the FOG from our sewer network and turn it into biodiesel that fuels our vans. That’s the end goal.
“As a water company, we suffer from thousands of preventable blockages each year from fats going down sewers. FOG blockages, or fatbergs impair the performance of wastewater assets which can cause sewer overflows, that can impact the environment.
“Water companies can spend a significant amount of money on staff and equipment costs to remove FOG from our sewers and send it to landfill – which also has an environmental impact. Additionally, network failures caused by FOG blockages carry the risk of costly environmental performance fines.”
As part of Yorkshire Water’s drive to increase efficiency within its operations, the water utility works alongside technology consultancy Isle to identify the latest technologies and innovations in clean and wastewater.
“In 2021, Isle suggested working with EcoClarity on our wastewater site, at a time we were looking to grow our imported waste business. The EcoClarity proposition gives us the ability to import different types of waste that we would not normally be able to treat.”
Yorkshire Water is the first UK water utility to install EcoClarity’s patented technology – located at its Hull wastewater treatment site. The modular, containerised EcoClarity system was introduced in February 2024 and will be used to treat FOG wastewater generated onsite during cleaning and maintenance procedures, as well as loads from waste management companies.
