Monday 9th August 2010

Bristol Excrement Powers VW Beetle

Water company finds novel use for human waste - don't poo-poo the idea etc, etc...

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The people of Bristol are inadvertently powering a VW Beetle convertible using their own - and there's no delicate way if putting this - faeces.

The prototype has been developed by GENeco - the green arm of Wessex Water - and is called the Bio-Bug.

Actually, the car runs on methane stored under pressure. That, in other words, is merely compressed natural gas (CNG). But while CNG is a much cleaner fuel than conventional petrol, it is still generally a fossil fuel.

This is where Bio-Bug is different, because the methane is produced from human waste at an Avonmouth sewage plant.

The Bio-Bug's converted 2.0-litre motor can still take it to around 115mph flat out, so while it doesn't exactly go like you-know-what off a shovel, the (ahem) dung Beetle can still hack along at a fair rate.

"Previously the gas hasn't been clean enough to fuel motor vehicles without it affecting performance," says Mohammed Saddiq, GENeco's general manager, but Wessex Water have imported specialist equipment to treat the biogas so that the Bio-Bug - built by an outfit called The Greenfuel company - can run untroubled.

"Our site at Avonmouth has been producing biogas for many years which we use to generate electricity to power the site and export to the National Grid," says Mohammed. "With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way."

GENeco says that the - er - wind-powered VW can run for 10,000 miles on the annual output of 70 household porcelain thrones.

All of which is very nice (Is it? Really?? - Ed), but it wouldn't give prospective Bio-Bug owners much defence from those who contend that the 'New Beetle' is a pile of sh*t. Because GENeco has rather proved that it is just that...

[patmahe]

It doesn't sound like a terrible idea, after all people will always st and this is merely a refined byproduct of that process. Wonder what the exhaust smells like.

The biggest problem something like this would have is in marketing it, there will be so many bad 'running a pile of st' jokes.

[ewenm]

Didn't Top Gear do a "test" of this sort of thing a while back? With some Rover 200s powered by petrol, cow-derived methane and human-derived methane IIRC.

[RB Will]

yeah the petrol won 2nd was man poo power 3rd was cow poo power. Although how consistent the performance of old Rover 200s is I do not know.

[Dagnut]

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

[ewenm]

Dagnut said:

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

CO2 and H2O are the products of burning methane.

[DaveR]

The Crack Fox said:

Interesting idea, and anything that recycles cack must be good...

Yeah, but how much cack is required to produce a meaningful amount of CNG?

On a basis of even one car per family of 4 I reckon you'd all (kids included) need to be washing a lot of vindaloos down with a lot of real ale for a week to even get the family wheels to the end of your driveway on Saturday morning.

[ctallchris]

Nice idea. There would probably only ever be a few cars powered like this but i can see the council's fleet vehicles being powered by methane.

[Chris71]

I saw the title and thought someone was bad mouthering some sort of Brigand or Blenheim engine transplant.

[annodomini2]

RB Will said:

yeah the petrol won 2nd was man poo power 3rd was cow poo power. Although how consistent the performance of old Rover 200s is I do not know.

It also depends on how the conversion was done to the cars, for the petrol car Rover would have spent 1000`s of hours tuning and testing to get the setup just right, the methane conversion kits were in all likelyhood just fitted and hoped for the best.

[annodomini2]

ewenm said:

Dagnut said:

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

CO2 and H2O are the products of burning methane.

Methane is currently considered a worse greenhouse gas than CO2 or Water, so if its leaking from the tank!

[annodomini2]

Article said:

GENeco says that the - er - wind-powered VW can run for 10,000 miles on the annual output of 70 household porcelain thrones.

I`d hate to be the one managing that car share scheme!

[goron59]

DaveR said:

The Crack Fox said:

Interesting idea, and anything that recycles cack must be good...

Yeah, but how much cack is required to produce a meaningful amount of CNG?

On a basis of even one car per family of 4 I reckon you'd all (kids included) need to be washing a lot of vindaloos down with a lot of real ale for a week to even get the family wheels to the end of your driveway on Saturday morning.

LOL

[Mr Gear]

ewenm said:

Dagnut said:

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

CO2 and H2O are the products of burning methane.

Exactly, and that C02 is already part of the carbon cycle so will be considered less significant to anyone interested in climate change etc.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, but it degrades quickly in the atmosphere.

[robman23]

more puns than an episode of dragons den

[DaveR]

Article said:

GENeco says that the - er - wind-powered VW can run for 10,000 miles on the annual output of 70 household porcelain thrones.

Aaah, I should have read it properly before my first post.

So 3,640 bog-weeks per 10,000 miles then. Or 1 bog-week per 2.75 miles.

So you might make it to the shops on Saturday to buy more bogrolls but you'd probably not make it home again.

Edited by DaveR on Monday 9th August 13:41

[Silver Smudger]

annodomini2 said:

ewenm said:

Dagnut said:

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

CO2 and H2O are the products of burning methane.

Methane is currently considered a worse greenhouse gas than CO2 or Water, so if its leaking from the tank!

The methane in question is being burned in a car, instead of being released into the atmosphere as would normally happen to ALL methane from this source - So much better for the environment I would have thought.

(love the use of "Dung Beetle"!)

[FourWheelDrift]

RB Will said:

yeah the petrol won 2nd was man poo power 3rd was cow poo power. Although how consistent the performance of old Rover 200s is I do not know.

I think cow poo was 2nd and man poo was last.

[ewenm]

annodomini2 said:

ewenm said:

Dagnut said:

Why choose the gayest car possible?

What kind of fumes are given off...surely methane is harmful to the "atmosphere"?

CO2 and H2O are the products of burning methane.

Methane is currently considered a worse greenhouse gas than CO2 or Water, so if its leaking from the tank!

Well yes, but you can apply the same argument to petrol/diesel leaking from cars - nasty environmental effects. Why assume a leaky tank?

Edited by ewenm on Monday 9th August 13:44

[SSCooperS]

Well, I guess it's appropriate they've chosen a VW Beetle for this, as it's a st car anyway...

[Mr Gear]

SSCooperS said:

Well, I guess it's appropriate they've chosen a VW Beetle for this, as it's a st car anyway...

Yeah, that joke was done in the article. But here's a tiny round of applause anyway: