You wouldn’t think that human poop
has many uses, but it turns out that the
UK is using brown to go green. As of
today, Britain’s first “poo bus” will be
shuttling passengers between the city
of Bath and Bristol Airport. And yes, you guessed it: it’s powered by human
waste, alongside food waste. This “Bio-bus” runs on biomethane gas, which is produced from the treatment of human sewage and food
that is unsuitable for human
consumption. It has a combustion
engine that is similar to diesel engines
in normal buses, but the gas is stored
in dome-like tanks on the roof. The gas is generated using anaerobic
(oxygen hating) bacteria, which break
down the waste into methane-rich
gas. Before it can be used to power
buses, CO is removed and propane is added. Other impurities are also
removed so that the emissions are
virtually odorless (thank goodness). It
also produces fewer overall emissions
than traditional diesel engines, and is
obviously more sustainable. Just one person’s annual food and
sewage waste is enough to fuel the
bus for 60 kilometers (37 miles). One tank is sufficient for a 300 kilometer
(186 mile) journey, which is about five
people’s annual waste. The company behind the gas, GENco,
produces approximately 17 million
cubic meters of biomethane annually,
which is enough to power around
8,300 homes. And as of this week,
they’ve started injecting gas generated from human and food waste into the
national gas grid network. “A home generated green gas,
biomethane, is capable of replacing
around 10% of the UK’s domestic gas
needs and is currently the only
renewable fuel available for HGVs,” said Charlotte Morton, chief executive of the Anaerobic Digestion and
Bioresources Association. “The bus
also clearly shows that human poo
and our waste food are valuable
resources.”

m.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-30115137