Bath MBA alums launch UK's first sewage-powered car
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The UK's first car to be powered by human sewage has been launched by two Bath MBA alumni, Ingram Legge and Noel Lock.
The duo launched their Bath-based Greenfuel Company in 2003, where they convert petrol cars to run on liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG fuel, creating a dual petrol and LPG fuel system. Greenfuel is now one of the UK's largest converter networks and converts over 2000 cars per year to LPG fuel.
This latest project has seen the company convert a Volkswagen Beetle to run on biogas, which is Methane generated during the sewage treatment process. The project was supported by waste recycling organisation GENeco, which is owned by Wessex Water. GENeco ran a workshop at the University of Bath for teenagers from schools in Bath and North East Somerset, who helped to come up with ideas for the car's design.
Waste flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes in Bristol is enough to power the ‘Bio-Bug’ for a year based on an annual mileage of 10,000 miles, Wessex Water said in a statement.
Ingram Legge said: ‘The Bio-Bug is very environmentally-friendly in terms of both carbon and air quality. Although the vehicle is still producing CO2 from the tailpipe, it is important to recognise where that CO2 is coming from. It’s not coming from yesterday’s CO2 buried in the ground as oil, it’s today’s CO2 from waste. In fact, it’s better than carbon neutral, as Methane released into the atmosphere is 20 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.”
‘As more and more biogas is generated from landfill and food waste we think that there is a big future for using this as road fuel and there is no reason why cars, vans, trucks and buses should not be converted.”
Ingram and Noel both completed their MBA in 2001 before going on to launch the Greenfuel Company.
Ingram said, ‘We both still find our MBA very useful in the day to day management of our company and of course what we learned on the Bath MBA was instrumental in us forming the company.”
Notes for Editors
The Bath MBA is a post-experience degree designed for people with a minimum of three years’ relevant management work experience. It looks beyond business processes and techniques to emphasise self-awareness, intuition, cross-cultural sensitivity and entrepreneurship skills, as well as a socially responsible and ethical approach to business and management.
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General Notes For Editors:
The University of Bath School of Management has consistently achieved both top research and teaching ratings in the UK's Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) assessments. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), the School was rated 5th in the UK for management research.
We are one of a select number of international business schools accredited by EQUIS, the European Foundation for Management Development's quality inspectorate and the Bath MBA has been accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) since 1976. The School is consistently ranked among the top UK business schools by The Times, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian.
The centrality of research to teaching is an essential feature of all our programmes. The School offers a full range of programmes from undergraduate to postgraduate up to PhD level and post-experience programmes including the world-ranked Bath MBA. The School also provides tailored executive development programmes for middle and senior management.
The School of Management has a faculty of around 90 teaching and research staff, including visiting academics, with a support team of around 70 managerial and administrative staff. Research income averages £2 million per annum. There are approximately 2,100 students in total comprising some 200 MBA students, 460 Master’s students, 210 full- and part-time research students, and over 1100 undergraduates following BSc degrees. The School also runs joint undergraduate programmes with Departments in the Faculties of Engineering and Design, Science and Humanities and Social Sciences.
