Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

My local landfill growing up had an decent sized methane burn-off flame running 24/7. I would put it on par with a wide open hot air balloon burner. My dad told me it was there to commemorate all the unknown meals that people threw in the trash, so I should always finish my dinner out of respect.

&gt; Eight hours of hoeing in a ditch supplies him with enough fuel to ride his vehicle for 20 km<p>Hmm, this is an art project but you can cycle 20km fairly leisurely in an hour.<p>8 hours of toiling in the ditches probably might be better used growing vegetables so your food isn’t being driven in?

I&#x27;m not sure disrupting the ecosystem at the bottom of the pond is an ecologically sound move. Biodiversity is important!<p>Obviously I understand this is a proof of concept and not the solution to fossil fuels.

Lots of funny wordplay there: uitstoot = emissions but uitsloot translates as &#x27;from the ditch&#x27;. grasmaaier = lawnmower (&#x27;grass mower&#x27;), but &#x27;gasmaaier&#x27; = grass mower running on gas.

There aren&#x27;t a lot of places that use anaerobic digesters (fermenting waste to methane) to treat wastewater. Anheuser-Busch does it at their breweries because their wastewater is particularly rich. If more municipalities built those at their wastewater treatment plants, then it would be a sizeable amount of carbon-neutral fuel. There are already 1200 municipal wastewater treatment plants in the US that do this according to the EPA, but there are many major cities that do not. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.epa.gov&#x2F;anaerobic-digestion&#x2F;types-anaerobic-digesters" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.epa.gov&#x2F;anaerobic-digestion&#x2F;types-anaerobic-dige...</a>

If you want to do this seriously, you could probably do quite well by creating biogas from kitchen scraps:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.motherearthnews.com&#x2F;renewable-energy&#x2F;other-renewables&#x2F;generating-biogas-zebz1305zstp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.motherearthnews.com&#x2F;renewable-energy&#x2F;other-renew...</a>

This made me chuckle. I am guessing he is trying to show how ridiculous our life style is without fossil fuels?

Please note that this is an art project and not a serious invention.

Searching for the terms &quot;secu&quot; and &quot;safe&quot; doesn&#x27;t yield any results. I know this is more of an art project, but in a photo he&#x27;s driving through a city. What are the security implications of this?<p>Also searching for &quot;poly&quot; doesn&#x27;t yield any results, so I&#x27;m left to hope that the is using polycarbonate to provide some kind of safety shielding in case things go south.<p>Also not on <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;uitsloot.nl&#x2F;sloot-motor&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;uitsloot.nl&#x2F;sloot-motor&#x2F;</a>

IIRC the average male farts 20 times a day. If he installed a voluntary workplace &quot;collector&quot;, he would improve the office environment considerably (as well as improving climate change) and harvest methane for free.<p>For that <i>special</i> motorcyclist: how about a direct butt plug-in? A former co-worker especially fond of flatulent foods could likely get 10 km from a bean burrito.

Isn&#x27;t this just a low-scale biogas-collector+engine? Biogas is already used in farming and commecial transportation since some decades. So the point here is that there are also other sources we can collect it from?<p>This remindes me of those guys who collect grease from diners and others foodshops to refine it into fuel for their cars.

Relating to the methane etc. in bogs - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Will-o%27-the-wisp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Will-o%27-the-wisp</a> sounds intriguing, curious how common it is.

&gt; “Eight hours of hoeing for a twenty kilometer drive will ensure that it will be the best twenty kilometers of your life.”<p>True, and highly disruptive of orthodox economic theory which posits the primacy of convenience.

Given that this involves disturbing the bottom of the pond, and that burning methane still produces CO2, this may actually be <i>less</i> environmentally friendly than just using gas.

&gt; It takes the young Dutchman roughly eight hours to collect enough fuel to fill the tank and ride his moped for about 20 km. This is not comparable to the convenience of filling up a gasoline tank or charging an electric battery, but that is exactly the point.<p>This shows the true cost of using fossil fuels has to be payed by something else (our planet) but not by its users.

Wood gas vehicles were, well not uncommon:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lowtechmagazine.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;01&#x2F;wood-gas-cars.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lowtechmagazine.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;01&#x2F;wood-gas-cars.html</a><p>Due to the need for oil (major cause of second world war anyway) Nazi Germany produce 1&#x2F;2 million cars run on wood gas.<p>(Had to google this but just remembered the image from &quot;The Knowledge&quot; well worth a read: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;Knowledge-Rebuild-World-After-Apocalypse" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;Knowledge-Rebuild-World-After-Apoca...</a>)

I both read and watched the video.<p>What was invented?<p>Also, on a side note this sort of &quot;environmental solution&quot; reminds me of the 1970&#x27;s beached whale disposal in Oregon.<p><i>edit: reference <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Exploding_whale" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Exploding_whale</a> </i>

This guy is clearly a modern wizard.

A solar powered still mounted to the back that dumps methanol and ethanol into a tank would be interesting depending on where you live. If you live in an area with a lot of fruit (California Central Valley) you could ride around for little cost.

What is the best way to deal with a pond lined with soil taken from dry ground, which emits methane bubbles nonstop when underwater? I&#x27;m concerned it&#x27;s hurting life in the water.

What is the yellow liquid: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;move.rupy.se&#x2F;file&#x2F;slootmotor3.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;move.rupy.se&#x2F;file&#x2F;slootmotor3.png</a>

Are we allowed to just dig up river bottoms? In many places you can get in serious trouble for disturbing wetlands. Were there any permits needed for this?

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;cvqUgdtbiZQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;cvqUgdtbiZQ</a>

I&#x27;ve heard of people collecting methane gas from composting toilets. It would probably be a big improvement.

That guy has the perfect, steam punk look to go with his vaporium power autobike.

Cows I know release a lot of methane. I’m but sure if there’s tech to harness that.

I dig this - his travel is powered by his work ethic. Love to see it.

&quot;He calls it “a quest on keeping the combustion engine alive in a fossil free future”.&quot;<p>And why is that a good thing?

Seems like learning about the bio system and setting up a methane producing aquarium at home will be easier.