Pig-powered trucks (or something like that)

We all know that pigs can provide us with all sorts of different stuff. But certainly, even for them, fuel is too much. Or is it really? Believe it or not, Nutribras Alimentos, a Brazilian company, presented the first truck ever to be powered by biomethane from pig farms at the end of 2021. 

• The achievement was possible thanks to more than 2 decades of transforming pig residues into biogas and biofertilizers.
• Resulting from a partnership with Universidade do Vale do Taquari, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the main challenge was to purify biogas. While biogas contains methane, it also contains other gasses that can damage internal combustion engines. But the prototype was able to reach a 96% concentration of methane.

The company realized that biogas would be more financially and environmentally advantageous as vehicle fuel rather than electrical energy because: 

• The amount of gas produced by the farm is relatively high if compared to the demands of the vehicles;
• Biomethane is better than gasoline and ethanol both in terms of efficiency and sustainability – it has infinitely lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels or even sugarcane ethanol;
• The process can generate other useful by-products.

The new technology will be implemented on the company’s farms.