Dirty Diaper Motor

Australian car manufacturer Holden is hoping to develop a car fuelled by household waste such as food scraps and dirty diapers within the next two years. The company has formed a consortium with Caltex, the Victorian Government and three other technology companies to investigate whether an ethanol plant in Victoria could be used to convert household garbage into fuel. The car maker is spearheading this initiative by committing to launch a Commodore car capable of running on 85 per cent ethanol by the end of this year. “Caltex will support the introduction of the new E85 Commodore by installing E85 pumps in 30 metropolitan and regional service stations later this year and increasing that figure to 100 within 12 months. The E85 Commodores will also be able to run on regular unleaded or E10 petrol. The ethanol plant would take two years to build and would be capable of producing 200 million litres of ethanol a year from a variety of waste, including building materials, paper, cardboard and household food scraps. It would cost roughly $300 to $400 million to build. The technology to convert the waste into fuel has been developed by US firm, Coskata. The process uses bacteria that feed off carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen and excrete ethanol.”