Dutch engineer builds methane powered motorcycle in bid for sustainable motoring.
In his quest for sustainable mobility, a Dutchman by the name of Gijs Schalkx recently made waves online after publishing a video detailing his very own methane powered motorcycle build project called the ‘Sloot Motor’.
FYI, ‘Sloot’ translates to ‘Ditch’ in the Dutch language, which is literally where Schalkx, an engineer and artist, harvests his methane gas supply from – a nearby swamp to be exact. How the self-harvested gas is converted into two-wheeled propulsion is rather ingenious.
Essentially, the Sloot Motor is motivated by a Honda GX160 four-stroke engine that Schalkx modified to run on methane gas. Collected and stored in a large and rather phallic-looking balloon, said gas is supplied to the engine via a hole drilled in the air box.
The engine still uses conventional petrol to fire at first, but once running, it’s powered entirely by methane gas the Dutchman collects. Schalkx explained that he got the idea after reading about a fisherman who used collected swamp methane gas to fry eggs whilst out fishing.
Collecting the gas is an arduous process, to which Schalkx also specially built a harvesting device to aid his efforts, which takes about eight hours to complete. Unfortunately, the amount of methane gas collected in said effort can only propel the Sloot Motor for up to 12 miles (approx. 19km).
What do you folks think? Is all time spent mucking about in a swamp ditch collecting a rather foul-smelling gas to power a motorcycle worth it?
