Online:
Visits:
Stories:
Profile image
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Britain’s poo-powered bus breaks speed record

Monday, May 25, 2015 10:28
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A British bus setting a new land-speed record of 76.8 miles per hour is a mildly interesting story, but not one that would be expected to garner many headlines – except for the fact that the vehicle responsible for the feat just happens to be powered by cow poop.

As reported over the weekend by Ars Technica and Gizmodo, the poo-powered bus was able to reach record speeds at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, England. While the bus ordinarily is limited to speeds of just 56 mph (90 kph), it was able to reach a blistering top speed of 76.785mph (123.5kph), as confirmed by the UK Timing Association.

While reports indicate that this is a record for a regular service bus, executives at Reading Buses, the company that operates the vehicle, told BBC News that it would not be officially recognized as a Guinness World Record unless it could reach speeds of more than 150mph (241km/h). Still, it is a rather impressive feat for a bus that uses poop as fuel.

Poo infinity…and beyond!

Named the “Bus Hound” as a nod to the British-developed Bloodhound supersonic car, the bus runs on biomethane produced by the anaerobic digestion of cow droppings in a bioreactor, said Gizmodo. This methane is compressed, liquefied, and stored in a series of tanks fastened to the roof. Ars Technica said that the fuel is comparable to compressed natural gas (CNG).

Chief engineer John Bickerton told BBC News that the company wanted to establish the “world’s first service bus speed record” with their bus (which is painted to looks like a cow) in order to increase awareness of the power, viability, and credibly of their biomethane-powered vehicle.

“We’ve laid down a challenge for other bus operators to best our record and we had to make it a bit hard for them. Most importantly we wanted to get the image of bus transport away from being dirty, smelly, and slow,” he said, adding that the bus “was an impressive sight… on the track. It sounded like a Vulcan bomber – the aerodynamics aren’t designed for going 80 mph.”

As Ars Technica points out, the biomethane used by the bus is a greener alternative to gasoline, natural gas, or other fossil fuels, and combusts methane that ordinarily would have wound up in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. However, the Bus Hound does have competition in the form of a human poo-powered bus created by GENeco.

Only time will tell which will wind up being the fastest.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

redOrbit.com
offers Science, Space, Technology, Health news, videos, images and
reference information. For the latest science news, space news,
technology news, health news visit redOrbit.com frequently. Learn
something new every day.”



Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1113396551/britians-poo-powered-bus-breaks-speed-record-052515/

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.