Sewage

My wife and I decided to go out for the day, so I took her to Beckton Sewage Works. Oh yes, only the very best for her, and no expense spared.

Actually, no expense: entry was free, with free coffee, fruit, biscuits and even a goody bag containing a water bottle (!) and a pen.

This was all part of Open House London, an annual event showing off "all that is best about the capital’s buildings, places and neighbourhoods". It is mainly about architecture, so there are a number of buildings (offices, factories, works, public buildings, private buildings, commercial, industrial) which offer free entry this weekend - many of them are normally closed to the public. However, there are also a number of other sites, such as the sewage works, which open their doors.

Beckton has the largest sewage works in the UK and. when the current expansion is complete, claims to be the largest sewage works in Europe. Current development includes a 7.2m diameter, 7km long tunnel, up to 75m below ground, connecting Abbey Mills pumping station in Stratford to the sewage works at Beckton. This tunnel will act as temporary storage when high levels of rainfall would otherwise cause raw sewage to be let into the River Lee at Abbey Mills. Another, much longer, tunnel from Acton in the west of London through to Abbey Mills to connect into the Lee tunnel is also proposed; this will stop most of the storm overflows into the River Thames.

The engineer here is demonstrating the partly dried, compressed sludge extracted from the sewage which is burned at high temperature in an incinerator on site to provide heat to generate steam which drives an electricity generator. The generator produces 7MW, partially offsetting the large energy consumption required to drive the machinery at the sewage works.