PlopGear: Dung Powered Beetle Goes Like Stink
By ALEX WEST
Published: 06 Aug 2010 • The Sun UK
THIS new British car blows the opposition away - it's powered by human POO.
The Bio-Bug has been converted by UK engineers to run on methane gas.
Excrement flushed down the loos of just 70 homes is enough to drive it 10,000 miles - a year's average motoring.
And with a top speed of 114mph, its makers claim it can go like s*** off a shovel.
The two-litre VW Beetle convertible is said to be the first gas-powered car that does not suffer reduced performance.
Mohammed Saddiq of Bristol-based sustainable energy firm GENeco, which developed the prototype, says it will pave the way for a green motoring revolution.
He boasts that it drives like a conventional car and will "blow away" electric models.
Mohammed said: "We thought it would be appropriate that the poo-powered car should be the classic VW Beetle Bug because bugs naturally break down waste at sewage works to start the treatment process which goes on to produce the energy.
"At the moment we use waste flushed down toilets but it won't be long before energy will also be generated through treating food waste. It is probably the most sustainable car around."
The vehicle is started using unleaded petrol but switches to methane once the engine is "up to temperature".
If the methane tanks in the boot run out, the Bio-Bug reverts back to petrol.
About 18million cubic metres of biogas are produced from human waste every year at Wessex Water's sewage works in Avonmouth, Bristol.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/Green/3083959/PlopGear-Dung-powered-Beetle-goes-like-stink.html#ixzz11oQGRBiO
