Oslo rolls out biomethane-powered busses
By Laura June 
posted Feb 4th 2009 2:57AM
posted Feb 4th 2009 2:57AM
The city of Oslo is getting down and dirty with a new scheme for its public transportation. Adding "minor modifications" to 80 of the city's public busses will allow them to run on biomethane fuel produced from raw sewage. The buses are apparently much quieter, and are more eco-friendly than biogas, with zero net carbon emissions. The leader of the project, Ole Jakob Johansen, also says that the city should save about €.40 per liter on fueling the busses. The trial is part of Oslo's plan to be carbon-neutral by 2050, and they hope to soon have the entire fleet of 400 rolling clean. Waste not, want not, huh?
[Via Inhabitat]
[Via Inhabitat]
I don't think you can save €40 per liter. Per tank maybe?
There's a decimal point in front, which makes it a lot more reasonable.
Biomethane? So this bus runs on farts?
Oil - Oli - what's the difference?
But the busses smell...
The buses already smell like shit, now they can leave a trail that smells like farts. how cool is that? as long as no one crossed behind the bus with a tabacco lit up...
Plus, if the bus did leave a 'smell trail', you'd be able to tell quickly whether you'r missed the bugger, or if it was just running late as per usual!! Bonus!
"At room temperature and standard pressure, methane is a colorless, odorless gas; the smell characteristic of natural gas as used in homes is an artificial safety measure caused by the addition of an odorant, often methanethiol or ethanethiol." - Wikipedia entry
well seeing as Norway don't use the Euro my guess is he means krone, which is roughly 10 to £1 or 9 to €1, and Norways price can cost £5 for a pint..
The future is here...fart powered buses!
The poo-mobile - the future never looked more brighter.
LOL. Flatulence.
I, for one, look forward to the day when I can pull-over and take a dump in my tank.
Drug addicts have been taking dumps on Oslo's busses for years! Who knew they would be so ahead of their time!
They meant Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman
Frist!
OMG..have they done something about the odor? This sounds HORRIBLE.
Yeah we got it.
Everyone can see that this is a picture from Oslo, Norway.. this bus to Tonsenhagen drives trough my street everyday..
sounds like shit to me!
Not that I know jack shit, but a quick google reveals Tonsenhagen is an area of Oslo, not Copenhagen.
I guess the photo could be 'shopped, but how about some fact-checking before all the mud-slinging?
That's not mud.
@Bill: How do you know its from Copenhagen? Tonsenhagen is an area of Oslo. Are you saying its photoshopped?
Now that's progress. Wish America would reach into doing similar things. I've seen where there's a company looking into doing something like this, but apparently no car manufacturers here, nor the gov't seem to be interested. Politics really is a bitch.
And what's with being so rough on the editor? I've seen MUCH worse on here.
Quieter, eh?
If you make them too quiet, people might accidentally walk in front of them and get hit.
Then the buses would be "Silent but Deadly".
This picture is clearly from Oslo. All three buses match the design of Oslo buses, '31 Tonsenhagen' is a real bus route here in Oslo, and the picture is taken a couple of blocks from my office :-). Denmark? What ARE you people smoking?
This is soooo lame, we had methane-powered Mercedes buses in Berlin 30 years ago and that's the truth.
This is really old tech.
Strange, the 31 bus in oslo goes from Snarøya through
Tonsenhagen and to Grorud. So I think the bus driver had to be seriously out of his route to visit denmark.
I'm sure the smell is good for tourism. Then again who goes to Oslo anyway?
That wasn't our buses, it was the dog!
That's nothing. Ithaca, NY (home of Cornell and Ithaca College...and a bunch of vagrant hippies) has a fleet of hybrid busses.
How does it achieve zero carbon emissions when it burns methane (CH4)? The last I knew its reaction was:
CH4 + 2 O2 --> C02 + 2 H2O
It should read zero NET emissions. As the linked article says, "net emissions...are zero because the carbon originally came from the atmosphere rather than fossil fuels". (Not counting the electricity used to process the gas at the plant.)
That's right, thanks for pointing it out.
Fail at spelling!
...Nah, you can actually spell busses that way. Weird, but you can.
Weirdly Oslo is still spelt 'Oslo' not 'Olso'
We have these in my town already, they absolutely stink!
Hmm. i never thought of Mercedes being the ones to make the BioBus (my word, but it works right?). I thought if anyone were to do it for Europe, let alone Oslo, it would be Volvo.
All aboard the Fart Bus!
Hahaha! I was almost shocked when I saw Oslo mentioned here (I don't live that far away from there)...
If these busses smell, I'm most definetly never gonna move there. No way in hell. Guess I'll find out soon enough...
There has been some problem with low frequency noise from these buses, not detected until they where in traffic. Still unresolved!
Actually the buses are driving down Tollbugata in Oslo sentrum. The image is not "shopped" as you call it.
I rode the streets of Oslo as a bike courier, it's my old workplace. The streets of Oslo.
As for the bio methane. Great idea.
Actually the photo is taken at the intersection of Tollbugata and Øvre Slottsgate.
You can check it yourself.
I used to work as a bike courier in Oslo.
The location I gave is 100% accurate.
It is not taken in Copenhagen and it is not a Photoshopped image.