‘Poo-powered’ car hits Bristol streets

LONDON - A ‘poo-powered’ VW Beetle has started to make its way through the streets of Bristol in a bid to encourage sustainable motoring.

The Bio-Bug is powered by methane gas, which is generated during the sewage treatment process.

And the good news is that despite being powered by fuel created from sewage, the car does not smell unpleasant.

Engineers from Wessex Water estimate the waste from 70 homes would generate enough gas to run the car for 10,000 miles (16,100km).

“It performs like a normal car - you wouldn’t know it was powered by biogas,” the BBC quoted a company spokesman as saying.

To use biogas as vehicle fuel without affecting vehicle performance or reliability the gas needs to be treated to remove the carbon dioxide content.

GENeco, part of Wessex Water, imported specialist “cleaning” equipment to treat the raw methane generated at the sewage treatment works in Avonmouth.

The spokesman added: Our site has been producing biogas for many years which we use to generate electricity to power the site and export to the National Grid.

“With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way.

“We decided to power a vehicle on the gas offering a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels which we so heavily rely on in the UK,” he added. (ANI)