There’s A Bus In England That Runs On Human Feces – And Food Waste

If you’re looking to take part in an adventure not unlike one you’d see on The Magic School Bus, then you might think about hitching a ride on the bus fueled by bio-methane gas, which is produced using materials most of us can’t get rid of soon enough — fecal matter and food waste.

The Bio-Bus, which made its first trip this month, seats 40 passengers and can travel up to 186 miles on one rooftop tank of waste fuel.

“Not everything we flush goes to waste,” a YouTube video of the new bus explains. “The Bristol sewage treatment works uses food waste and sewage to power 8,300 home everyday.”

While producing power for homes is an admirable concept, GENeco – the company behind the initiative – decided to take things a step further by hitting the road.

GENeco’s video explains that the amount of biomethane gas it takes to produce one tank for the bus is roughly the same amount produced annually by five consumers.

A one-way trip to Bristol Airport from Bath city center – the bus’ dedicated route (about 20 miles)– is estimated to take the biowaste produced by one person annually.

Do we smell a new payment system for public transit? Okay, probably not, but it might be something to consider down the road.

And while a ride on the “poo-bus” sounds unpleasant at first, riders don’t have to be worried that their commute will be stinky. The process to create the biomethane gas actually removes impurities, including odors.

[Via Mashable]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist