That’s right, using human waste to successfully run a car! This might sound unconventional and somewhat disgusting to some of you but an Australian company has done that. The company is using energy from human waste to run vehicles to run EVs on. Of course, it takes processes of sewage plants to make the waste usable.
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The waste from one human can approximately power the Kona EV to run for half a kilometre. The concept of bio-fuel isn’t new and a lot of companies have experimented with animal waste to power cars. However, we certainly don’t come across a bio-fuel often which is a by-product of humans. The company claims that they have been experimenting with this concept for a while and their first poo-powered car was developed in 2017.
Urban Utilities states that the Hyundai Kona is still charged via electricity however the electricity is produced by treating the biogas from sewage treatment plant and then fed into a cogeneration unit at the Oxley wastewater treatment plant in Brisbane. The Kona uses approximately 150,000 litres of sewage to charge its battery to full. This helps in saving around $1,700 worth of petrol every year by the SUV. The Kona EV can be charged using a 240-volt power point and has around 450km of range on a single charge.
Urban utilities states that a single person’s daily habits can generate enough electricity to enable the Kona EV to travel half a kilometre. Turning the human waste into energy can turn the savings to around $1.7 million every year. The company also claim that the electricity produced is enough to power 4000 homes for the entire year.
Urban utilities spokesperson says that more than 330,000 people in Brisbane are helping to create the fuel for the poo powered cars every time they flush. The spokesperson also lets out a joke saying that it is not an average SUV but it is in fact an S-Poo-V with a giant poo emoji on the side which makes it pretty obvious about the SUV’s identity. This particular Kona EV may look normal from outside but the number plate clearly calls out the source of power for this S-Poo-V.