Spanish automaker has a different take on developing environment-friendly cars, one that runs on biomethane. According to Seat, this makes for a highly efficient system considering that the biomethane fuel can be sourced endlessly from sewage.
Elaborating further, Seat said the biomethane fuel works in much the same way as CNG and is compatible with all CNG-ready cars currently in service. However, unlike CNG that happens to be a by-product of petroleum and is hence not renewable, biomethane can be produced in almost unlimited amount and anywhere in the world where there is a sizeable human population, Motor1 reported.
The seat also said they have tied up with a water management company Aqualia as part of it Smart Green gas project, Bioenergy reported. This will ensure they have the biomethane fuel needed to test its cars with pilot production of biomethane already having commenced at a water treatment plant in Jerez. Seat is currently employing two Leon TGI for testing purpose.
"With this development and collaboration project Aqualia, Seat has become the first brand in the [Spanish] automotive sector to use 100 percent Spanish biomethane obtained from waste water," said Matthias Rabe, the head of research and development at Seat.
Apart from the easy availability of the biomethane fuel, the other inherent advantage of it is that tailpipe emissions get reduced by a remarkable 80 percent. This might not be as dramatic as the zero tailpipe emission that the new age electric vehicle or hydrogen powered vehicle have claimed to achieve.
Also, with the industry together with the public perception being inclined heavily towards electric cars, Seat's move to adopt biomethane fuel can be seen as a sort of stop-gap measure that can serve CNG powered cars currently in use. This is not likely to spur large-scale development of CNG cars anytime in the near future.
Worth mentioning, Toyota too has embarked on a similar mission of driving automotive fuel with using the by-product of sewage. However, Toyota's approach is different in that it is aimed at producing hydrogen post treatment of sewage sludge.
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