THE UK’s first ever bus powered on wastewater and food waste has taken to the road today, powered by biomethane generated at Bristol sewage treatment works – a plant run by GENeco, a subsidiary of utility Wessex Water.
The 40-seater “Bio-Bus” can travel up to 300km on a full tank of biogas. The Bristol wastewater treatment plant treats around 75 million cubic metres of wastewater and 35,000 tonnes of food waste per year, collected from households, supermarkets and food manufacturers.
Using anaerobic digestion, 17 million cubic metres of biomethane is generated a year at the Bristol plant – the equivalent of meeting the power needs of 8,300 homes. A newly built gas plant injects the gas into the grid.
The “Bio-Bus” will be used to take passengers from Bath to Bristol airport, with up to 10,000 passengers expected to use the service per month.
The Bio-Bus has received backing from a number of businesses including the manufacturer of the bus, Scania, as well as companies including Roadgas, CNG Services Ltd, Dampney’s Agri Environmental, Trant, Grontmij and AIR Decker
Charlotte Morton, chief executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), said: “GENeco’s Bio-Bus is an excellent demonstration of biomethane’s unique benefits; decarbonising areas other renewables can’t reach. A home generated green gas, biomethane is capable of replacing around 10% of the UK’s domestic gas needs and is currently the only renewable fuel available for HGVs.”
In 2010 GENeco powered a car on biomethane produced during the sewage treatment process. The Bio-Bug was used in various trials to see how viable it was to power a vehicle on sewage gas.
GENeco was launched by Wessex Water in 2010 and in 2012 it opened the country’s first co-located food waste plant at a wastewater treatment plant.
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