Cars of the Future Will Run on Water or Poop: Your Choice

Cars of the Future Will Run on Water or Poop: Your Choice

At the 2014 Los Angeles International Auto Show (LAIAS), Honda displayed their Clarity Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) Concept car that runs on hydro-electric fuel-cell power.

This car will be ready for purchase in 2016.

Honda was just one of several automakers who are making the move to emission-free driving focused on fuel-cells and all electric transport.

Toyota revealed the Mirai , a sedan that runs on hydrogen fuel-cells that will be available to customers in December of 2014.

Mirai “uses no gasoline and emits nothing but water vapor”, travels 300 miles on a tank powered by hydrogen gas which is converted to electricity and refuels in 5 minutes.

The attraction of fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) is that they “produce zero tailpipe emissions. On a life-cycle basis, FCVs running on hydrogen derived from steam-reforming natural gas—currently the most affordable way of making hydrogen—produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of a gasoline-powered car.”

To speed up the process for manufacturer’s incentive to build more FCVs, “Department of Energy launched the $1 million H2 Refuel H-Prize competition (H2R) to challenge engineers and entrepreneurs to develop affordable systems for small-scale hydrogen fueling to help bring hydrogen vehicle infrastructure into the mainstream.”

The H2R is a “two-year competition” to entice “America’s engineers and entrepreneurs to develop affordable systems for small-scale hydrogen fueling.”

In California, the FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCE) has developed the first “tri-generation” plant that converts sewage into electrical power for industrial facilities; as well as renewable hydrogen for transportation vehicles.

FCE derives their energy source from the Orange County Sanitation municipal wastewater treatment plant – in other words, the waste from Californians is powering this treatment facility and would be useful in powering FCVs.

In the UK the Bath Bus Company (BBC) has created the first public transport vehicle that is powered by “human sewage and food waste”.

Called the Bio-Bus, this vehicle seats 40 passengers and can run 186 miles on a full tank of … poop.

The Bio-Bus derives its fuel from a sewage treatment plant and only needs “the annual waste of about 5 people” to power this bus.

Back in 2009, the capital city of Oslo in Norway began using biomethane from human waste to power public transport buses to “cut fuel costs and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by both the treatment plants and the buses.”

Ole Jakob Johansen, project manager, told the press : “Using biomethane makes sense. Not only would the biomethane otherwise be wasted, but the reduction in emissions per bus will go a long way to achieving our carbon-neutral target.”