Skip to main content

Bus record

A methane-powered bus has set a speed record of nearly 124km/h at a test track in the UK. The bus, from the southern city of Reading, was converted to run on compressed methane from cow manure and was painted black and white like a Friesian cow. Mechanics removed the bus’s engine governor that restricted the vehicle’s speed to 90km/h. The bus then broke the record on the banked high-speed circuit at Millbrook Proving Ground, near the city of Bedford. The cow waste was broken down by anaerobic digestion to p
August 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A methane-powered bus has set a speed record of nearly 124km/h at a test track in the UK. The bus, from the southern city of Reading, was converted to run on compressed methane from cow manure and was painted black and white like a Friesian cow. Mechanics removed the bus’s engine governor that restricted the vehicle’s speed to 90km/h. The bus then broke the record on the banked high-speed circuit at Millbrook Proving Ground, near the city of Bedford. The cow waste was broken down by anaerobic digestion to produce biogas, which was then liquefied and stored in several fuel tanks within the expanded roof of the bus. The bus’s speed would not be a Guinness World Record because it failed to exceed 241km/h. But the vehicle did make an appealing sound as it swept past on the track.

Related Content

  • From rubber to nanotechnology, new additives give longer life
    March 12, 2014
    This month: rubber comes to the rescue for cash-strapped UK authorities and Italian towns plagued by road noise; Japanese nanotechnology fights monsoon damage in India; and a new research programme promises to help define whether ‘sustainable’ bitumen technologies really live up to their billing - Kristina Smith writes A new venture in the UK aims to encourage the use of recycled tyres in road pavements. Billian UK is now manufacturing GTR Pellets which combine bitumen, ground tyre rubber (GTR) and miner
  • Road markings essential for road safety
    March 16, 2012
    Road markings, along with laying and testing equipment, are all essential to make sure drivers get clear instructions. Patrick Smith reports Road markings are as important as signs, with longitudinal markings informing and warning road users of approaching situations that will require them to take some form of action.
  • Brisbane’s new airport link is an engineering success
    April 12, 2013
    Financial troubles for Brisbane's new Airport Link overshadow its construction success – Adrian Greeman writes. Political argument and legal dispute is likely to rage for some time yet over the bankruptcy of Australian road operator BrisConnect, which went into receivership this February with A$3 billion in debt. Toll paying users for its new Airport Link have been less than half the predicted numbers since it opened in July last summer. But if its nancial engineering is being questioned, the same is not t
  • Cramped cattle rustling
    March 27, 2014
    Bungling cattle rustlers in Malaysia only just managed to escape being caught when the vehicle they were using for the theft broke down. The thieves were clever enough to use a blowpipe and tranquiliser darts to make the animals sleepy enough to steal.