Characterisation of five high lipase-producing bacterial strains isolated from fat, oil and grease deposit blockages in sewers ("fatbergs")

Fats, oils and grease (FOG) are a major problem for the management of wastewater sewers, where accumulation can lead to blockages, sanitary sewer overflows and disruption of wastewater treatment. Management of this problem is predominantly manual and while bacterial intervention through bio-additions have great potential, to date they have had mixed success. We have investigated the environment at the site of two Fatberg blockage sites in the UK to better understand the conditions in which a product would need to perform. We isolated a range of bacterial strains from this environment directly, and performed whole genome sequencing which showed the genetic capacity for Fatty acid harvesting (lipases, uptake transporters), catabolism and utilisation and suggesting these strains may be good candidates for reducing FOG levels in the environment.