Officially called the Bio-Bug, but known more colloquially as the Dung Beetle, the latest in alternate fuel source vehicles has hit British streets.

Bristol is the site of the debut of the new GENeco modified Volkswagen Beetle, which claims to herald a revolution of sorts in sustainable power, being the first car to run on human waste.

The Bio-Bug uses a sewerage treatment process to generate methane gas to run to car, capitalising on an ever-productive fuel source, albeit one that may have purists turning up their noses.

Statistics have revealed that the Bio-Bug can be powered for up to one year using the waste of just 70 Bristol households, based on an average yearly travel distance of 10,000 miles, according to the press release by the team of UK developers at GENeco. The power system itself is nothing out of the ordinary, being the same using CNG (compressed natural gas) process that has been used to power vehicles in India and China for years. The vehicle is claimed to have the same performance and drive as the standard VW Beetle.

GENeco’s General Manager, Mohammed Saddiq, said that his organisation had complete confidence that sewerage sludge generated methane would prove a practical and reliable alternative to traditional fuel sources in addition to being an innovative way of dealing with two problems at the same time. Saddiq pointed to the GENeco site at Avenmounth as being a producer of biogas for some time which it has both exported to the National Grid and used to power the site.