Hippie Power

Gijs Schalkx on his slootmotor

Gijs runs his motor scooter on methane that he gets from plants rotting in roadside ditches. He floats a tub upside down on the water and hacks away at the goop lying in the bottom of the ditch under the tub. His hacking releases methane gas that bubble up into the tub. He uses a bicycle pump to transfer the methane to the tank hanging on the back of his scooter. Goes to show you that roadside ditches are the biggest cause of global warming. I mean look at the thousands of miles of roads, and there are ditches on both sides, so there are twice as many miles of ditches as there are roads! And don't forget that methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. The mind boggles. So, free fuel for everyone!

As proof of concept, it's amusing. As a practical matter, not so much. It takes him all day to collect enough methane to run his scooter for 20 klicks. You could walk that far in half the time. However, his methods are very crude. It wouldn't take much to make his methane collection more efficient, though he would have a long way to go before it became economically viable. Still, you have to admire him for getting around the whole petroleum industry.

Via Detroit Steve