With the world adopting measures for sustainable living, fuel for transport is one area in which a lot of research is happening. To this end, a bio-waste fuelled 40-seater bus went on its maiden journey on November 30 between Bristol and Bath in the UK. The bus runs on biomethane gas, produced from food and sewage waste, and with a full tank this bus can travel up to 300km. The biomethane for the bus is produced at Bristol Sewage Treatment Works, which is a company under GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water, a water supply and sewerage utility company in UK.
“Through treating sewage and food that’s unfit for human consumption, we’re able to produce enough biomethane to provide a significant supply of gas to the national gas network that’s capable of powering almost 8,500 homes as well as fuelling the Bio-Bus,” says Mohammed Saddiq, GENeco General Manager, in a report on www.wessexwater.co.uk.
The Bristol Sewage treatment plant works on over 75 million cubic metres of sewage waste and 35,000 tonnes of food waste every year. Over 17 million cubic metres of biomethane gas is being produced at Bristol in a year through a process called anaerobic digestion. This is a process where microorganisms like bacteria break down biodegradable materials into methane and carbon dioxide during the absence of oxygen. Biogas is one such gas produced through this process.
The bus will run for another three weeks and over 10,000 passengers are expected to travel in the coming weeks. “The bus also clearly shows that human excreta and wasted food are valuable resources,” says Charlotte Morton, chief executive of Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association, in the report on the Wessex Water website.
But this sustainable form of public transport is not something new as the Scotland-based company Stagecoach, came out with a bio-fuelled bus in 2007. It claimed to be the first such project in the UK and won Travel and Transport Award at the 2010 Green Business Award. Their Bio-Bus runs on cooking oil and other food industry by-products. The cooking oil and products were recycled at East Ayrshire Council’s recycling plant in Scotland. They have now invested over Euro 1.1million (approx over `8 crore) in upgrading their bio buses and hope to prevent 150,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere through lesser fuel emissions in the coming year.
Thanks to : The Indian Express | 08/12/2014
