Tropes

mnn.com 2014 000041.txt

#Poop-powered airport shuttle bus hits the road in the U k. A supermarket powered by its own expired comestibles. Street lamps kept aglow by sewage sludge. An entire town filled with chicken manure-heated homes. The latest initiative in England that's transforming landfill-bound organic waste and excreta into bio-based fuel? Try a poop-powered airport shuttle bus. The first of its kind in the United kingdom Bio-Bus is a 40-seat transit vehicle that runs entirely on fuel generated through anaerobic digestion. That is the conversion of waste n this case both locally sourced food waste and human sewage nto a methane-rich biogas. While it would be most convenient if Bio-Bus serviced the number 2 route it runs along the 20-mile-long A4 route which ferries commuters between Bristol Airport in North Somerset and the historic tourist-inundated city of Bath with several local stops in between. The Bath Bus company-operated shuttle carrying about 10000 passengers monthly embarked on its maiden journey last Thursday. Bio-Bus can travel 186 miles on a full tank of biomethane (or biomethane as they might say across the pond) gas which requires the annual waste of five people to produce according to the operator of the Bristol sewage treatment works GENECO. A single person annual waste both edible and flushable would fuel the bus for 37 miles. The annual waste generated by an entire busload of passengers would provide enough fuel for a return trip across Great britain from Land's End in the extreme southwest of England to John O'Groats in the extreme northeast of Scotland. There always the chance that regular riders on the route hat nice old lady from South Bristol who travels to Keynsham every Sunday to visit her sister re being propelled in part by their own poo. Says Mohammed Saddiq general manager of GENECO in a press statement issued by parent company Wessex Water: Through treating sewage and food that unfit for human consumption wee able to produce enough biomethane to provide a significant supply of gas to the national gas network that capable of powering almost 8500 homes as well as fuelling the Bio-Bus. Gas-powered vehicles have an important role to play in improving air quality in UK cities but the Bio-Bus goes further than that and is powered actually by people living in the local area including quite possibly those on the bus itself. Roughly 75 million cubic meters of sewage and 35000 metric tons of food waste collected from households along with local grocery stores and food manufacturers is treated annually at Bristol sewage treatment works located in the suburb of Avonmouth. The facility is capable of producing an estimated 17 million cubic meters of biomethane from this waste each year. Bio-Bus which boasts CO2 EMISSIONS that are 30 percent less than buses with conventional diesel engines couldn hit the road at a better time. In a little more than a month Bristol the eighth most populous city in the U k. will begin its reign as the 2015 European Green Capital. Come for the nightlife street art and that charming West country drawl. Stay for the human excrement-powered airport shuttle. In addition to the Bath-to-Bristol airport service Bath Bus company operates open-top sightseeing coaches in England and Wales with routes in Windsor Cardiff Eastbourne and of course Bath. The company has remarked not as to if any vehicles in its sightseeing fleet will join the airport shuttle and be converted to run on Bristolian sewage and food scraps o

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