With threatening Global climate change, the race of finding
alternative source of bio friendly energy is on. And now bring to you the first
bus which uses an alternative bio-friendly energy, surprisingly human waste
apart from the regular diesel engine. It emits 30% less CO2 than the diesel
engine. Human wastes are obvious renewable fuel and bio friendly.
This Bio Bus runs solely on bio-methane gas generated by
treated human waste and it is already up and running in the UK, where it is
following Bristol-to-Bath route, am sure you want to really get a ride from it.
The bus is a 40-seat and can go 186 miles on a single tank
of gas, creating one full tank requires five peoples ’ wastes for one year. The
bus emits 30% less carbon than the normal diesel engine
GENeco runs Bristol sewage treatment works, the waste planet
in Bristol annually treats 75 million cubic meters of wastes, which produces
the gas through a process of anaerobic digestion in which oxygen-hungry
bacteria break down wastes producing the gas, to power the bus, CO2 is removed and propane
is added, they also remove the impurities which can make the bus smell, which
the director of GENeco said have a very important role to play in improving air
quality in the UK cities. A quote from GENesco’s GM which may have the
passengers wondering is that the bus is actually powered by people living in
the local area, including possibly those in the bus too. The bus clearly shows
that human wastes and waste foods are very useful and important resources,
foods which are unsuitable for human
consumption should collected separately and recycled through anaerobic digestion
into green gas and bio-fertilizers, not wasted in landfill sites or
incinerators.
GENeco last week also became the first company to start delivering
gas generated from human wastes directly to about 8,300 homes by the national grid.
Four years ago engineers developed a VW Beetle fuelled by
bio-methane gas generated at Avonmouth sewage plant near Bristol, now the same
plant is powering the poo bus. In Sweden again, their transport policy has prioritized
the development of bio-methane for trucks and busses an initiative that has
helped to clean up the air. At a smaller and more experimental scale, researchers
at Bristol Robotics Laboratories have succeeded in charging phones using
electricity generated form urine. Other research teams have succeeded in
generating electricity, clean water, and hydrogen from human wastes.
Is this the future of renewable energy alternatives? First you can think of the advantages, environmental
impacts and the rest.
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