SEAT has teamed up with Spanish water company Aqualia to develop a new project to trial the viability of powering cars on a renewable biofuel made from sewage.
The five-year project is starting this month with SEAT providing Aqualia with two Leon TGI hatchbacks, which have been engineered specifically to run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
Waste water is used to create biomethane gas to fuel the cars, and SEAT says the experiment will hopefully establish new methods of creating sustainable, eco-friendly fuels.
Sustainable biomethane gas
SEAT’s vice president for research and development, Matthias Rabe, said: “With this development and collaboration project with Aqualia, SEAT has become the first brand in the country's automotive sector to use 100% Spanish biomethane obtained from waste water.
“Fostering the creation of renewable alternative fuels, which help promote future environmental improvements and the long-term use of vehicles in cities are an integral part of Seat's CNG strategy.”
According to Aqualia’s general director Felix Parra, a medium-sized water treatment plant could potentially produce up to a million litres of the biofuel every single day.
New methods for creating eco-friendly fuel
That’s enough to power more than 300 vehicles, and could enable towns and cities to create their own localised fuel network for buses, bin lorries or even passenger vehicles.
Mr Parra added: “We are working to change the current paradigm, leaving behind the model in which treatment implies a significant energy cost.”
