UK's first poo bus hits the road

and some more "poo" news!
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/vehicles-powered-human-waste-...


GENeco, part of the Wessex Water group of companies, has a launched a six-month trial running a VW Beetle on methane gas derived from the sewage treatment process at its Bristol works in Avonmouth.

The 'Bio-Bug' is running on waste flushed down the toilet of homes in Bristol to see if methane from sewage sludge could be used as an alternative energy source to power company cars without affecting performance.

With the support of the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), GENeco, has invested in a newly developed methane purification plant and other specialist equipment to supply the converted Beetle with fuel.

GENeco said waste from the toilets of just 70 homes would be enough to power the Bio-Bug for a year, based on an annual mileage of 10,000 miles. If the trial is successful, the company said other vehicles in the GENeco/Wessex Water fleets and businesses in the Avonmouth area could be converted to the low carbon fuel.

"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," said Mohammed Saddiq, GENeco's general manager.

"With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way."

Producing the biogas

To produce the biogas, sewage sludge is converted to methane using anaerobic digestion (AD) technology, a process in which bugs in the absence of oxygen break down biodegradable material to produce methane.

The biogas is then upgraded by removing the carbon dioxide in a special purification plant.

Investment

SWRDA has invested £32,000 in the project, which has helped GENeco acquire the specialist equipment that also includes a pressurisation unit, storage units for the compressed gas, and a tool to supply the converted vehicle with fuel.

Claire Gibson, director of Sustainable Resources at the SWRDA, said: "We have invested in a range of emerging low carbon technologies and renewable energy fuel types such as this to ensure the South West is well positioned to take advantage of this growing market.

Food waste

GENeco is planning to increase the amount of biogas it produces at its Avonmouth site by converting food waste into biomethane.

"It won't be long before further energy is produced when food waste is recycled at our sewage works," said Saddiq. "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."

The company said that if all the biogas produced at Avonmouth was converted to run cars it would avoid around 19,000 tonnes of CO2.

Showing the way

In the UK, the practice of running cars off biogas produced from human waste has yet to take off, but in Sweden more than 11,500 vehicles already run on biomethane produced from sewage plants.

Last week, British Gas announced it was involved in a project to convert human waste at the Didcot sewage process works into biogas.

Commenting on the Bio-Bug trial, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) said the project demonstrated the many benefits of AD.

"Biomethane cars could be just as important as electric cars, and the water regulator Ofwat should promote the generation of as much biogas as possible through sewage works in the fight against climate change," said ADBA chairman Lord Rupert Redesdale.



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