The idea of using manure as fuel isn't new at all. It just needs to be processed properly and used in a suitable environment. In the UK, that environment is a bus called Bus Hound, which demonstrated the enormous potential of manure by setting a speed record (for a bus of this kind, of course), with an exact mark of 123.57 kilometers per hour.
Reducing the consumption of fossil fuels is an initiative that must go far beyond swapping the car for the bicycle. It's necessary to keep other vehicles in view, such as trains, planes, trucks, and all ground units dedicated to public passenger transport. The vast majority of buses devour diesel as if it were an addiction, and the black smoke they emit is hardly pleasant. The adoption of biofuels is far from perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. Still, it never hurts to consider other options. One of them is manure, more precisely, manure generated by cattle. A study published in 2006 by the United Nations indicates that the 1.5 billion head of cattle produce approximately 18 percent of emissions linked to greenhouse gases, in this case, methane.
The alternative to letting it loose into the atmosphere is to use it somehow, and that brings us to the Bus Hound bus, which recently set a speed record. How do manure, methane, and a bus relate? Basically, it all starts with the anaerobic digestion of manure in a bioreactor. This produces biomethane, which is then compressed, liquefied, and stored in seven tanks installed on the roof of the bus. The rest of the system simply turns Bus Hound into a vehicle powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), a system widely used in Latin America (Argentina and Brazil exceed four million registered units) and a large part of Asia.
The Bus Hound isn't the first development to follow these parameters in the UK. The so-called Bio-Bus that links Bristol and Bath uses human waste, both food waste and... you know. Naturally, the web is already calling for a competition between the two buses, and there are those who point out that both solutions still emit carbon dioxide. However, those emissions are 30 percent lower, and the fuel comes from waste, so there's much more to gain.
