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Beetle Burning Human Waste Tests Potty Power for Wessex Water
2010-08-10 14:14:12.728 GMT
By Louise Downing
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) -- Wessex Water Plc
is finding value in the toilet.
The water and sewage-treatment firm in southwest England
has begun testing a Volkswagen Beetle car powered by biogas from
human waste.
"We plan to see how economical and environmentally
beneficial the car is after a six-month trial," company
spokesman Ian Drury said. "If successful, we may look to power
some of our fleet on biogas."
The company's GENeco unit is converting gas from a Bristol
treatment plant into bio-methane. Greenfuel Co., located in
nearby Bath, modified the car to run off the biogas.
If all the biogas produced by GENeco was channeled into use
in vehicles it could power 5,694 vehicles, based on an annual
mileage of 10,000 miles, Drury said today in an e-mail. This
would offset some 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide that would be
released by the vehicles using conventional fuels.
Waste flushed down the toilets of about 70 homes in Bristol
is sufficient to power the so-called "Bio-Bug" for a year,
based on an annual mileage of 10,000 miles, Bath-based Wessex
Water said in a statement.
"If you were to drive the car you wouldn't know it was
powered by biogas as it performs just like any conventional
car," GENeco's General Manager Mohammed Saddiq said in a
statement.
The project was part-funded by the state-sponsored South
West Regional Development Agency. Wessex Water was unable to
provide a cost for the project.
For Related News and Information:
Most-read alternative energy stories: MNI ALTNRG <GO>
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--Editors: Todd White, Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Louise Downing in London at +44-20-3216-4633 or
Ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Angus McCrone in London at +44-20-3216-4795 or
amccrone1@bloomberg.net
