Volkswagen Beetle converted to run on methane headed for the UK streets
By Laura June 
posted August 5th 2010 1:40PM
posted August 5th 2010 1:40PM
Meet the Bio-Bug, a custom modded Volkswagen Beetle which has been converted to run on biogas -- fuel created from human waste. The process of conversion isn't brand new, but this will be the first automobile fully converted to run on biogas in the United Kingdom without any loss of performance. In fact, the car is so reliable that its makers believe it can "blow away" electric vehicles, and that consumers won't even notice the difference. The Bio-Bug is a regular old 2 liter VW convertible modified to operate on both gasoline and compressed methane gas: once the methane runs out, the car reverts back to running on gasoline. The cars run on so little methane that just one regular sized sewage plant could run a car (or cars) over 95,000,000 miles per year. Developed by GENeco, a sustainable energy company in the UK, the Bio-Bug is going into a trial period, and the company plans on converting its entire fleet if successful.
Can we call it the fart-mobile?
@teky Whaaat?? it wasn't me.. it was the car, honestly!
@teky Fat chicks could pretty much self-power these things. Assuming the axles hold up.
@teky From my limited knowledge of German gleaned entirely from foul mouthed native speakers, I present for your consideration: Pumpenwagen.
@teky
Anybody seen the film...Thunderpants?
@teky
I salute Robin Williams for being a futurist... "F**k green, go Brown!"
It runs on farts?
@Rick Astley
How do I refill the thank..... *scared*
haha gizmodo was calling it the "dung beetle". pretty funny i thought.
@system22 hahahaha, much better.
@teky
hahaha, lets go to gizmodo right now!
/s
@system22
Not sure who came up with it, but that's the actual nickname.
@ExplicitFunction well whoever did, its quite hilarious!
Doesn't it still produce Carbon dioxide? Which kind of defeats the object of being "sustainable"
@Pellinifool being that methane is still a huge greenhouse gas, taking one to produce another wont be so bad.
@Pellinifool
Actually if the methane is produced from human waste this would be carbon neutral, since humans got the carbon from plants, or from animals that ate plants, that absorbed the carbon from the atmosphere in the first place.
@Pellinifool
It's sustainable in the way that it doesn't reintroduce carbon from fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Studies here in Sweden have shown that using fuels based on rotting livestock excrement and slaughterhouse waste can reduce emissions by as much as 146%.
And no, that's not a typo.
Instead of expending energy pumping up fossil fuels, processing it, transporting it across the globe and burning it to reintroduce the carbon, nitrogen and sulphur into the atmosphere we're relying on waste that's not only part of the current biocycle, meaning it will be reabsorbed by the plants that make up fodder for the livestock, but also removing the methane resulting from natural rotting of said material from the atmosphere as well.
It's a net win in greenhouse reductions on multiple levels.
Fuels such as biogas and synthetic diesel (which can made from many things, locally there's a plant processing lumber waste into diesel) is probably the best solution for sustainable personal or professional transport in the immediate future.
Electrical is a nice, and niche, experiment but unfortunately we still have to produce the electricity somehow and there's currently no battery technology that doesn't rely on rare earth minerals which are in very short supply.
@Pellinifool Sustainable has nothing to do with the emissions from the car. That's being "green." Sustainability has to do with the source of the fuel. Fossil fuels aren't sustainable because there's a finite amount of them. I would imagine that sewage is quite sustainable.
@Exodite
You don't seem aware that regardless of how the energy for EVs is produced, they make more *efficient* use of that energy and thus use *less*. An electric motor is 80% efficient versus 20-35% for an ICE, and the turbine at the local coal power plant averages 60% efficient, with 6.5% power lost, on average, in transmission. The result? Even if you charge purely from coal (which is impossible as there's no state where 100% of the power is produced by coal fired powerplants) EVs use significantly less of that power and in turn contribute less in the way of ghg emissions. Google "MIT well to wheel analysis of EVs".
@Zamboro
You don't seem to understand what I wrote.
Electrical vehicles have their place (the 'mice and niche' part) but they can't replace contemporary combustion engines at this time. Nor does their construction and choice of fuel make them more 'green'.
You're quite right that not all electricity is produced from fossil fuels but while that's true you're ignoring the significant energy losses imposed by transporting and storing electrical energy away from the production site. That, and that coal plants aren't actually any more efficient than modern vehicles while releasing more greenhouse gases per W of energy produced.
Natural gas plants are approaching that level of efficiency but that doesn't hold true for coal, or even nuclear for that matter.
I'm not vehemently opposed to electrical vehicles by any means but when I say that it's a 'nice and niche experiment' I mean just that.
Will it pass emissions?
@tucker973 Brilliant!
@tucker973 LMFAO
Holy Shiitake mushrooms!!!
yeah, that's cool.
who knows, maybe my 1yo can finally earn her keep on. Come on sweetee, daddy needs some fuel for the car.
Could they have at least painted it a color other than the one that powers it?
And I hated getting stuck behind an old-school diesel on the Interstate; now this?
In a few years every car will start smelling like a cattle-hauler. I predict the rear-view air freshener manufacturers are doing a happy dance right about now...
@nefnet13 It burns methane, the colourless, odourless gas, not untreated crap.
@Maxwell
Yes. When people think of the odor of methane as it occurs naturally, they are smelling the sulpher compounds that commonly accompany natural methane.
finally! a reason to can my farts...
Nothing new here. Methane gas from digesters in almost all wastewater treatment plants are converted to electricity in a cogen power facility. Yes, the same electricity that powers your gizmos, cars, etc. Same methane gas that can also be used to power NGV vehicles. This is just a PR stunt.
A car that runs on methane? Sounds like a bunch of shit to me.
Now it smells just like it looks.
"Did you fart?"
"We've been over this a thousand times - it's the car!"
"...we're in the kitchen"
We can now look forward to a future when "you're full of shit" is regarded as a compliment.
Look out new car scent the new norm is old stank ass!
Stench Buggy
@upsidedown Lilo and Stench reference?
Dung Beetle?
Barely noticable except the fact it doesn't accept gasoline, and it has markings all over it...
Hate to be driving behind one of these things. At least it doesn't run on sulfur...
Yeah, but does it smell like french fries?
Just add a machine that can make the fuel in the garage from my own waste and add a conversion kit for my VW GLI and ill be set!
Human waste! Well, there certainly won't be any shortage of THAT anytime soon. :-)
Does it come with a canary to warn of leaks?
In self-power mode, a smallish appliance in the driver's seat is engaged and the driver is encouraged to dine on legumes.
Since it's the UK it will be a 2 litre Bug :)
Can anyone tell me why this isn't called the Dung Beetle?
Now with "pull my finger" ignition system...