TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: Oslo Buses to run on Poo Power!

Rather than let all their sewage go to waste, the city of Oslo recently announced that it plans to cut carbon emissions by converting 80 public buses to run on biomethane generated from raw sewage. These poo-powered buses are part of the city’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2050, and stand to cut around 44 tonnes of CO2 per bus, per year.

We love seeing innovative energy solutions that make use of waste, and we’re glad to hear of Oslo’s plans to trap and transform the gas emitted from the breakdown of treated sewage into biomethane. Two sewage treatment plants will soon be outfitted with the technology, and the biomethane generated will be used to power 80 buses. The buses will be slightly modified so that their engines can run on methane, and these modifications will also have the effect of reducing noise levels as they move around in the city.

If this test is successful, the city plans to convert the rest of the buses to run on biogas, and the first buses will start running in September 2009.

Via The Guardian and Wired

Lead photo by Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk

4 Comments

PaTrond February 4, 2009 at 9:53 am

Aha! I think I smelled something strange this morning on my way to school.. Not yet.. =P
Those yellow and red busses you see at the picture already run on bio-diesel(as we call it in Norway).. I don’t think it is very clever and ecofriendly.. I don’t think organic power is ecofriendly at all and think the poo should go directly back to the farms without loosing its nourishment instead of letting artificcial manure tak that job..

Electricity(given from the forces of the earth; water, wind, etc) is green! Ecologic farming is green! Feeding people with food instead of the cars prevents hunger! =)
hogangreenfire February 4, 2009 at 9:01 am

I think this is SUCH an ingenious idea; I love it! I don’t when I’ve been more excited about poop!!
vadjutka February 3, 2009 at 3:45 pm

Hi! I wanted to comment to the recycle post, but comments are closed there.
So I just wanted to let you know, that I am so inspired by this blog, that I made a game inspired by Inhabitat among my European Etsy friends.
http://vadjutka.blogspot.com/2009/02/recently-i-discovered-my-new-favourite.html
Judit
chrisp68 February 3, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Even better, have the poo generate electricity and power the buses with batteries. Much more efficient instead of generating and wasting the heat on board the bus. Then the buses are silent. But if you must use the methane at least make the buses hybrid with regenerative breaking!