VRI & Airporter Team Up to Create Biogas Bus

Bellair Charters / Airporter Shuttle is collaborating with the Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) at Western Washington University to outfit an Airporter Shuttle vehicle with a methane biogas fuel system.

Why is this REVOLUTIONARY?

Biogas (methane) is a fully sustainable and renewable fuel, made from typical dairy farm waste (manure and other). No petroleum needed. The fuel emissions from a biogas-burning vehicle are so low that they are 100 times below the federal limit.

With a digester located at Darryl Vander Haak’s farm in Lynden WA, the VRI will collect the gas and further refine it prior to fueling the Airporter Shuttle vehicle. This will be the first biogas-powered commercial passenger vehicle in the country.

“We can turn cow power into horsepower,” says Eric Leonhardt, director of the VRI.

The VRI has already made this system work in a passenger automobile, the award-winning Viking 32.

The Future Looks Bright

This project could certainly change the future of transportation and sustainable energy. Using biogas made from farm waste would reduce our dependence on foreign oil, dramatically reduce our carbon footprint, and create incentives for other farmers to install digesters to produce electricity and/or fuel.

More information to come! For more information about the VRI, visit their website at http://vri.etec.wwu.edu/