Client: GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water

Bio Bug Car

This VW Beetle may appear perfectly normal but it runs on no normal fuel. In the back of the car, two tanks store methane produced by converting the water treatment plant's human waste.

It is estimated the yearly waste from 70 average households would generate enough gas to run the car for 10,000 miles (16,100km). The gas is generated through anaerobic digestion – a process in which bugs in the absence of oxygen break down biodegradable material to produce methane. One might imagine that a car powered by sewage would smell, but it is effectively odourless.

The Beetle can run for up to 200 miles or 320 km on two cylinders of gas and refuelling the car is relatively simple. Its developers say the Bio-bug is proving once and for all that the technology producing energy from human waste, is no flash in the pan.