Characterisation of the microbial community of 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 characterised the microbial community at these sites, gaining a picture of the fatberg microbiota as a diverse community of environmental bacteria, dominated by bacteria from the genera Xanthomonas, Cloacibacterium and Rhodobacter.