Will Human Waste Require Adjustments to Coach Driver Training?

If you think you’ve heard it all, well think again. There is now at least one passenger bus operating in the UK using methane gas produced by human faeces and food waste! Should the bus prove successful, there is little doubt additional buses will be brought online. Our question is whether the use of human waste in biofuel will require adjustments in coach driver training.

Obviously, we ask the question in jest. Little changes from the driver’s perspective based on the fuel being used. Nonetheless, it must be strange operating a passenger vehicle with knowledge that the fuel in the tank may have actually been produced by some of the people in the seats behind you. It is something to think about.

The actual news reports say the bus in question is operated by the Bath Bus Company. The fuel is supplied by a company named GENeco, a company that uses the process of anaerobic digestion to produce biomethane. This natural process can create fuel by using microorganisms to transform human waste and food into methane gas.

GENeco’s Bristol plant produces some 17 million cubic metres of biomethane every year. However, there is no way a single passenger bus uses that much fuel. So where is the rest going? It is going into the national gas network to be used for heating homes, generating hot water, etc. It’s quite possible that your boiler is being partially fuelled by some of your own waste.

It turns out that biomethane is already being used to power entire bus fleets elsewhere in Europe, such as Norway and Sweden. Across the Pond, the Canadian city of Quebec announced their own biomethane plan in 2012. They have also been using bio diesel in Canada for quite a while. Let’s face it; the days of converting food and human waste into fuel are now here.

Train to Be a Bus Driver

It’s nice to be able to deal with an amusing topic such as this one every now and again. Nevertheless, when it comes to bus and coach driver training, we are all business. The HGV Training Centre is committed to graduating the best drivers in the industry. We want our drivers to go on to provide safe and reliable service to both employers and the passengers they carry.

To be a professional bus or coach driver, you must earn a PCV licence. The process begins with a routine medical exam, followed by the PCV theory test and eventual practical skills training. We can help you through the entire process from start to finish. You only need a valid car licence to get going.

The HGV Training Centre operates more than 45 training facilities around Britain. We make training convenient, affordable, and quicker than most people expect. Begin training now and you could be working just after the New Year. Want to know more? Contact us right now on our freephone number or through this website right now.

Sources:

CBC – https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bus-fuelled-by-biomethane-from-human-waste-launched-in-u-k-1.2842067