BBC.com announced that the first UK bus to run on human and food waste just started its service between Bristol and Bath. Although bio-fuel has been around for some time now, the inauguration of this bus represents an important step toward the future of transportation. Let’s face it, the transition between fossil fuel and bio fuel (or electric cars) is inevitable, and humans need to understand this as soon as possible.
The Bio Bus has 40 seats and it ca travel up to 186 miles per gas tank. In other words, the waste of 5 people is suffice for almost 200 miles.
Human and food waste is transformed into bio gas at an anaerobic digestion plant at Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth by a Wessex Water subsidiary company named GENeco. “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 actually powered by people living in the local area, including quite possibly those on the bus itself.” said Mohammed Saddiq, GENeco general manager.
Charlotte Morton, chief executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) said that “Food which is unsuitable for human consumption should be separately collected and recycled through anaerobic digestion into green gas and biofertilizers, not wasted in landfill sites or incinerators. The Bio-Bus will also help to demonstrate the true value of separate food waste collections, which are now obligatory in all other regions, to the English government.”
According to Morton’s estimations, with the right programs, the bio-methane could provide for a large percentage of UK’s gas needs.
