Sewers fuel vehicles

Press, 25 October 1984, Page 1

Sewers fuel vehicles

Biogas will save the Christchurch Drainage Board $94,000 a year, according to its deputy operations engineer, Mr Michael Bourke. The board has converted most of its vehicles to the alternative fuel which it extracts from sewage. “We have converted everything from our 800 cu. cm vans to the five-litre (13 tonne) trucks,” Mr Bourke said. He said that there were some exceptions: diesel vehicles could not be converted and some of the board’s minis were too small to make conversion worth while. “For an annual total cost

of $30,000 there is a saving of 160,000 litres of petrol.” The Bromley sewage treatment plant is the biggest producer of biogas to run vehicles in the world. “A lot of it has been our own research and development on the subject,” Mr Bourke said. The plant is manned continuously. It produces enough gas to drive 68 vehicles and provides twothirds ■of the Bromley plant’s power. Mr Bourke said that, at this stage, no other local authority was using biogas to fuel vehicles. Mr Bourke said that extensive alterations would have to be made before the

plant could increase its vehicle fuel output. "This would involve multi-million dollar capital expenditure,” he said. The Christchurch City Council has written to the board expressing interest in using any available excess biogas for fuelling its motor vehicles. The board at a meeting last evening decided to invite council officers to discuss the council’s needs specifically. A report being prepared on the gas use is due for completion early next year. It is unlikely that the board will make any decision on the matter until then. In an address to the Insti-

tute of Agricultural Science yesterday, the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, commended the board for its use of biogas He urged farmers to follow suit in using alternative fuels to conserve energy. The Liquid Fuels Trust Board had almost completed a six month study of the use of biogas fuel from farm and industrial wastes, he said. It had also examined the potential for making ethanol from sugar beet, methanol from forest products, and a diesel alternative from the methyl esters of animal fat. Further report, page 9