Methane-powered cars?

Question

Would it be reasonable to gather methane gas from human and animal waste, compress it (IE using solar power not fossil fuels to run the gas compression machine), and use it to power small (IE almost scooter-sized) cars that go 40-50mph?

You would think this would be much easier to do than, say, using energy-consuming electrolysis to get Hydrogen out of water and then yet more energy to compress it into a hydrogen fuel cell...

BTW, far as "harvesting" the methane...it could be as simple as gathering waste from sewage plants and dumping animal waste into trenches that lead to such plants. I'm thinking along the lines of using existing infrastructure already used to ship waste to "transport and collect" the methane gas. Something that works in the same way separation of oil into layers in tank works (the technical name for the process escapes me).

But I agree...dug up natural gas is easy to get...my only concern is with the price of natural gas going up to increasing scarcity...and, let's face it, the degree of waste/methane our growing population generates is only going to go up. :-)

Answer 1

The buses where I live run on natural gas. It takes energy to harvest natural gas or methane and solar power is nowhere near being able to take on that job. Solar power is not efficient at all and is a supplement, at best, for becoming a viable energy source. Hydrogen cars are a joke. They will never become reality. Electric vehicles are better but we won't see them for quite a while.

Answer 2

Yes it would. There are such cars now. I recall seeing a Honda Civic that ran on compressed natural gas (which is mostly methane). Such cars use natural gas and not biologically generated methane because that is where 99%+ of the methane used in the world comes from. But it is not only cars; biologically generated methane would be useful as a replacement for ALL natural gas uses, like heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It could just be fed into the existing natural gas system because natural gas is mostly methane anyway. Methane would even make a good rocket fuel, and NASA is working with some small companies to develop methane rocket engines. The challenge is to make enough methane to replace all the natural gas we use now. It would be VERY good for the environment and probably good for the ecconomy too, if it could be done efficiently. The problem is that it cannot be done efficiently on a large enough scale. The effort and time needed to collect all the biological waste and process it into methane and then dispose of the sludge that would be left over is just WAY greater than the effort and time needed to drill a gas well and just pipe the gas to a tank.

Answer 3

I am gassy enough you could simply run a hose from the driver's seat right to the engine intake and run the car that way. If you can get that to work for everybody, we could be converting biomass in fhe form of beans directly into fuel for our cars without any machinery except the hose.

Answer 4

The question is how much energy it would take to capture and prepare the methane.

btw: burned methane is not as smelly as unburned methane. Unless you ignite your insides, your farts do not smell anything like a methane powered engine.

Answer 5

If it happened, I think a good stocks to invest in would be B&M and Van Camps Pork and Beans, all natural and turbocharged for that extra kick when it goes in and comes out!

Answer 6

its very smart you should pitch it we need to do something with the waste instead of killing the earth

Answer 7

Very smart... it's a good idea because we aren't becoming any less wasteful!

Answer 8

it would smell horrible, methane is the gas you fart