Poopblic Transportation

[tharpdevenport]

Bus Powered by Poop


Buses that uses poop to power themselves using bioorganisms to breakdown the crap and, well, it's poop power.

Unjfortunately it can't go very far, with as described in the story only 190 miles with the poop gathered from five people over one year.

Sadly it doesn't work as the example picture from the company, though that would be awesome if it did.


But what if it could be perfected and it only took five people's poop from a month to get that bus 190 miles? Would it be feasible then to have a direct way, say shitting in hte toilet, to power the bus?

This could lead to a revolution in cars where instead of a driver's seat you have a toilet, and guess what you do there?

Yes, no more gas station trips, and big savings on your water bill as you'll be going elsewhere.


If you don't have to go and you are out of juice, so to speak, you can always ask a stranger for help. No more having to have a gas can, just some toilet paper and say, "Excuse me, can you shit in my car, please?"

Suddenly everybody will have a square to spare.

But my oh my if that bus crashes and the tanks rupture. And where do you go to refil the bus? And can you imagine that job description for the collectors?

I wonder what those fumes smell like.


Would you take the poop bus?

 

[DimesDan]

Would you take the poop bus?

I have done.

 

[KimMH]

Simultaneously cool and gross.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I don't drive anf have no intentions of ever learning to drive but I would travel in a car powered by poop.

 

[galleywest]

All joking aside, it's a good idea. I would drive that car, and I would totally own it.

 

[mari]

Considering how many poopy diapers I've changed today, that sounds quite economical.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Bus Powered by Poop

Buses that uses poop to power themselves using bioorganisms to breakdown the crap and, well, it's poop power.

It also uses inedible food waste thrown out by stores, restaurants, homes, farms, etc. It's sort of like Mr. Fusion from BTTF, minus the fusion, and with a lot more processing obviously.

Unjfortunately it can't go very far, with as described in the story only 190 miles with the poop gathered from five people over one year.

Except there's not only five people providing all the raw sewage needed to power the bus(es). You act is if it's a very limited resource. The population of even a small city would more than easily provide all the necessary fuel for a fleet of buses like this to operate 24/7/365. It's actually extremely efficient, and gives a productive purpose to something that would otherwise just go unused.

But my oh my if that bus crashes and the tanks rupture. And where do you go to refil the bus? And can you imagine that job description for the collectors?

Yes, the job description is called "sewage treatment plant workers," and they already exist.

After the biogas conversion process it goes through it is indistinguishable from natural gas that's used in a lot of public transportation and energy plants already. It's clean, renewable, safe, and turns something which would previously just go to waste (literally) and need to be stored or dumped (tee hee) into fuel.

The tanks are highly resistant to rupturing, and are far safer than the equivalent amount of gasoline.

I wonder what those fumes smell like.

Like sewage before processing, and like natural gas after.

Natural gas is odorless. The sulfur/rotten eggs smell you smell in your home if there's a natural gas leak is a harmless chemical called mercaptan which is added to the mix during processing to let people know there's been a leak and to get out of the house and don't light any flames or turn on electrical devices which can spark.

Would you take the poop bus?

Given I've been on plenty of city buses that would already qualify for that moniker based on what you might find inside, what powers it is the least of my worries. Of course I would.

The CNBC article linked at the end still makes the jokes but is much less ridiculous than The Blaze.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102375325#.

 

[RoJoHen]

I wouldn't take the bus, since I just generally don't use public transportation, but I do like the idea of using poop to power things. Somebody needs to attach a generator to my toilet!

 

[tharpdevenport]

Bus Powered by Poop

Buses that uses poop to power themselves using bioorganisms to breakdown the crap and, well, it's poop power.

It also uses inedible food waste thrown out by stores, restaurants, homes, farms, etc. It's sort of like Mr. Fusion from BTTF, minus the fusion, and with a lot more processing obviously.

Ah, it doesn't matter it has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator in it -- it's the poop bus now.

Unjfortunately it can't go very far, with as described in the story only 190 miles with the poop gathered from five people over one year.

Except there's not only five people providing all the raw sewage needed to power the bus(es). You act is if it's a very limited resource. The population of even a small city would more than easily provide all the necessary fuel for a fleet of buses like this to operate 24/7/365. It's actually extremely efficient, and gives a productive purpose to something that would otherwise just go unused.

Ah, no I wasn't. You're putting words in my mouth.

If it can go only that far, could it perhaps be the tank doesn't hold that much or it holds a lot but can't get that much out of it than compared to gasoline?

It's neither freasible nor efficient to disrupt the sewage system and the processing/cleaning of waste water, to power buses. The energy and oil used to achieve this alone would be more than what it take to bring from production to pump gasoline, as it always is from all these green (or brown in his case...) energy alternatives. I've yet to see one proposed that's not only economical but requires less oil to bring it. Maybe one day the PoopBus will be feasible, but for now it is not.

Yes, the job description is called "sewage treatment plant workers," and they already exist.

It's called humor; you may have noticed I littered my post with it.

I wonder what those fumes smell like.

Like sewage before processing, and like natural gas after.[/quote]

Well, if I have to preface every instance of humor explaining it is humor for certain board members, this place is going to suck more than than if it had Justin Bieber as a background picture every day of the year.

The CNBC article linked at the end still makes the jokes but is much less ridiculous than The Blaze.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102375325#.

Sorry, but if Russia Today or Al Jazeera had alternative off shoot sites for information, I wouldn't visit those either. If I want propaganda, I'll go watch hours of Louis Farrakhan and Nancy Pelosi on Youtube.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Why is this even a question.

 

[Captrek]

This should have been a storyline on Voyager, with the crew having to exploit every available source of energy. "There's coffee in that toilet!"

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Ah, no I wasn't. You're putting words in my mouth.

If it can go only that far, could it perhaps be the tank doesn't hold that much or it holds a lot but can't get that much out of it than compared to gasoline?

I'm not putting words in your mouth; you're fundamentally misunderstanding the concept. It doesn't "only go that far" and it's not a limit on the size of the fuel tank. Read what it says again:

Based on one report, a year’s worth of waste from five people can provide enough basic material that, once processed, will provide enough gas to power a bus carrying forty people a distance of 190 miles.

That's just giving you an idea of its efficiency, not setting a limit on how far it can go or how much it can carry. If all forty people on the bus (just using an example, it doesn't actually come directly from them) provided a year's worth of waste to be processed into fuel, it would be able to power this hypothetical single bus for 1,520 miles. But you're getting an entire city's worth of human waste and spoiled food so the potential exists to power an entire fleet of buses running continuously.

It's neither freasible nor efficient to disrupt the sewage system and the processing/cleaning of waste water, to power buses. The energy and oil used to achieve this alone would be more than what it take to bring from production to pump gasoline, as it always is from all these green (or brown in his case...) energy alternatives. I've yet to see one proposed that's not only economical but requires less oil to bring it. Maybe one day the PoopBus will be feasible, but for now it is not.

Nothing needs to be disrupted or transported using oil. Biogas is already used for power generation on-site at treatment plants and in compressed form for transportation in the US and around the world. You're just having a kneejerk negative reaction to renewable energy that's not based on any rational reasoning. Even The Blaze didn't have a negative reaction to it, so congrats on being more extreme than them.

It's called humor; you may have noticed I littered my post with it.

Well, if I have to preface every instance of humor explaining it is humor for certain board members, this place is going to suck more than than if it had Justin Bieber as a background picture every day of the year.

Oh, believe me, I get that you're trying REALLY hard to "litter" your humor everywhere. There's enough there to power a bus. That Bieber joke killed, for instance.

The CNBC article linked at the end still makes the jokes but is much less ridiculous than The Blaze.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102375325#.

Sorry, but if Russia Today or Al Jazeera had alternative off shoot sites for information, I wouldn't visit those either. If I want propaganda, I'll go watch hours of Louis Farrakhan and Nancy Pelosi on Youtube.

You get that CNBC is a business channel, and it's nothing like MSNBC, right? Nor is MSNBC like what you've imagined here, but that's another matter.

Also, The Blaze cited the CNBC article as it's primary source. So you were secretly spreading the word of ISIS and communism all along! Why do you hate America and freedom, Tharp?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I want to know why anyone would vote no for this.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I think this is a really shitty idea. I voted yes.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Locutus of Bored]

We should harness that duck for fuel.

I want to know why anyone would vote no for this.

Ah, but you haven't voted yes either. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!? Are you waiting for us communists from CNBC to vote yes for the hippie poop bus, and then you'll line us up against the wall for being Bolshitviks?

 

[bbjeg]

I'd take a bus or car powered by poop. Of course I'd care about the filtration system and smells generated, but I doubt it would be as bad as what gasoline produces.

I want to know why anyone would vote no for this.

Me too.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The question is: Can the bus, when it has reached the end of it's lifespan, be converted into food fit for human consumption?

If so, then there is a perfect cycle.

 

[Thestral]

I think this idea's the shit.

 

[DimesDan]

I'd take a bus or car powered by poop. Of course I'd care about the filtration system and smells generated, but I doubt it would be as bad as what gasoline produces.

It smelt fine, inside and out.