British Engineers Developing Train Powered by Biomethane Derived from Animal and Human Waste

Great Britain could soon enable its residents to travel on trains that would use biomethane extracted from animal and human waste as fuel, which would lead to a reduction of the emission of harmful gases.

The idea of the engineers of the company Ultra Light Rail (ULR), who are behind the BioUltra project, is to replace all the city trams and trains with vehicles which use biomethane as fuel and thereby contribute to environmental protection.

The railcars developed by the company’s engineers convert biomethane gas into electricity, which then charges the batteries and enables the train to run.

This future railcar would be 20 meters long, run at 80 km/h and have a capacity of 120 passengers. The project is to be financed from the British government’s funds.

Biomethane is a type of biofuel derived from several kinds of waste, including sewage sludge, crop residue, animal manure and food waste. All these are broken down by bacteria, thereby producing the gas that can be used as a cleaner alternative fuel.

Those who advocate the idea note that, although biomethane does release carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere, those processes are natural. Furthermore, they say that using this kind of fuel repurposes said raw materials and helps avoid the use of fossil fuels.

ULR aims to have the solution become available in the market as soon as possible and presented to larger and smaller cities in England, in order to contribute to an improvement of the quality of life and reduce air pollution on the island.

Ultra Light Rail

biomethane

biomethane fuel

biomethane from animal and human waste