A bus powered by cow manure, lovingly referred to as the ‘Poo Bus,’ has broken a land speed record.
Racing around the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire in England, the Poo Bus sped at the top speed of 123.5 km/h (76.785 miles/h). It’s not just incredibly fast for a bus that’s powered entirely by gases that emit from cow manure, but faster than any public service bus that’s powered by gasoline.
Operated by British transport company Reading Buses, the bus runs on a bio-methane-compressed natural gas. The gas is obtained when colonies of bacteria digest cow manure inside a bioreactor. This gas, also referred to as biogas, is captured, compressed and liquefied at a remote location. Thereafter seven tanks that are mounted on the bus are filled with this environment friendly gas. The tanks are fixed on the roof of the bus.
Interestingly, there isn’t a lot required to make the buses run on this biogas since Liquefied Biomethane is very similar to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). A slight modification to the internal combustion engines and the buses can be made to run on a much cleaner and eco-friendly fuel, instead of the regular fuels that produce huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other polluting gases.
As can be seen in the video, it’s not exactly a quiet trip, admitted chief engineer at Reading Buses, John Bickerton,
“It sounded like a Vulcan bomber. The aerodynamics aren’t designed for going 80 mph. In regular use, the bus will be limited to speeds of around 90 km/h (56 miles/h).”
Despite the speed limit, the stunt was essential to highlight just how great something that runs on cow manure can actually be. There was a two-fold intention to the display. The promoters wanted to eliminate the “gross factor,” that might be associated with a service that runs on cow manure, added Bickerton.
“We wanted to get the image of bus transport away from being dirty, smelly, and slow. We’re modern, fast, and at the cutting edge of innovation.”
Secondly, the company wanted to show that biomethane or biogas is better for the environment than petrol or natural gas because you’re recycling something that would normally be released into the atmosphere. Interestingly, biogas has been blamed for silently causing pollution and is considered by some as a more potent form of greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Despite the euphoria, there is a dilemma. Cow manure has become a little hard to come by since people are willingly buying truckloads of the “gross” stuff and sprinkling the same over their gardens as it is one of the best natural fertilizers. Hence the Poo Bus has other variants which are running on biogas that has been derived from human poop and food waste.
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