PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD Last week, Dave Greenfield wrote about technology to turn sewage into clean power. Following this trend in renewable energy, a British company just launched its country's first sewage-powered car. Nicknamed the Bio-Bug, the refurbished VW Beetle runs on the methane gas that is created during the sewage treatment process.
GENeco, a subsidiary of Bath-based Wessex Water, brags that its car could be powered for a year by the wastewater flushed by just 70 households. Perhaps even more impressive is that the energy system does not diminish the car's performance.
(source:
GENeco)
Biomethane is produced by treatment plants that process sewage sludge. To fuel cars, the methane must undergo a process called biogas upgrading, in which carbon dioxide molecules are removed.
A few countries, like Sweden, already have cars that run off biogas. But if the innovation becomes trendy in heavily populated nations like England, large amounts of greenhouse gas usage could be avoided. The car also provides a method of recycling the human and food waste that currently takes up space in landfills.
According to the GENeco press release, Mohammad Saddiq, GENeco's general manager, said, "Waste flushed down the toilets in homes in the city provides power for the Bio-Bug, but it won't be long before further energy is produced when food waste is recycled at our sewage works. It will mean that both human waste and food waste will be put to good use in a sustainable way that diverts waste from going to landfill."
Currently,
a small trial of the Bio-Bug is being run. If this trial is successful, GENeco's
next step will be to convert all of the company's vehicles to run on biogas.
(source:
GENeco)
Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future, a U.K. sustainable development organization, is enthusiastic about this development. "On first hearing of the Bio-Bug, some people will smile, and some people will go 'yuck'! Either way, what I hope they realize is that this is exactly the kind of innovation we now need for a more sustainable world—and those directly involved should be proud they're making a small but significant contribution to it every day!" Porritt states.
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