In recent years, environmentally minded engineers have begun experimenting with a variety of different fuel sources in an attempt to find a viable alternative to crude oil.
From vegetable oil to natural gas to lithium-ion batteries, conscientious gearheads have begun experimenting with all sorts of different fuel sources over the course of the past decade or so.
The latest of these experiments comes to us courtesy of Reading Buses in the UK, who have made a bus that runs on nothing but cow excrement.
Strictly speaking it runs on biomethane fuel derived from cow manure, but let’s not get bogged down in technicalities. What’s really impressive about the so-called “Bus Hound” is that it doesn’t just amble around highways like a heifer out to pasture. In fact, it can just about blow the doors off of any other bus on the road.
Whereas most buses generally top out at around 60mph, the Bus Hound was able to complete a record lap at Bedford’s Millbrook Proving Ground at a blazing 76mph.
The BBC reported that chief engineer John Bickerton designed and built the bus in hopes of illustrating the “viability, power and credibility of buses fueled by cow poo.” Bickerton went on to explain that his team “wanted to get the image of bus transport away from being dirty, smelly and slow.”
It remains to be seen whether or not manure will be powering your local highway coaches anytime soon, but it’s an exciting development in an evolving industry that’s worth keeping an eye on. For now, though, we’ll stick to diesel.