From plate to engine: French city powers buses with food scraps

The French city of Lille is to power a 100-strong bus fleet using biogas fuel made from organic household waste, thanks to a pioneering recycling plant that was unveiled on Wednesday.

breitbart reports that in a project unique in Europe, the plant will supply the northern city with four million cubic metres of eco-friendly biogas per year. That is enough to power 100 buses. The biogas is produced from food scraps, weeds, flowers and grass clippings. They will start supplying the existing fleet of natural gas-powered buses later this year, and they expect to be fully operational by the end of 2008. They will handle 108,600 tons of green waste per year.

"There is no more accomplished example of using a local resource to power a local fleet. The cycle is complete," said Eric Quiquet, an urbanism official at Lille city hall.

The city has a population of 1.1 million people and has been an early adopter of other green urban technologies. Biogas is produced by decomposing organic material with a process called biomethanisation. It actually emits far less carbon dioxide than traditional fossil fuels. Sweden got into the action too, when they launched the world's first biogas-fulled train in 2005. They an even provide a direct fuel supply. A 150-strong bus depot has been built next to Lille's Centre for Organic Recovery. Now that is a plan that people would love to see in America.