Come next spring, Whatcom County residents could be riding a bus powered by cow manure, thanks to a $500,000 grant for Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute.

The U.S. Department of Energy grant will expand the VRI's Biomethane for Transportation Project, which works with Vander Haak dairy in Lynden to turn cow waste into clean-burning biomethane. That biomethane could then be used to power a revamped Bellair Charters bus.

Western Washington University’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its Biomethane for Transportation project, turning dairy waste into clean-burning biomethane.

Part of the project’s funding will go toward placing new engines in three buses used by Bellingham’s Bellair Charters; these buses will be converted from diesel fuel to biomethane with engines from Northwest Cummins and will produce 23 times less carbon dioxide than they did previously.

Researchers at Western Washington University have been awarded a $500,000 grant that will be used in a project that will turn manure from dairy cows into fuel that will power buses in Bellingham.
The Bellingham school’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) has been given the grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand the Biomethane for Transportation project at the school, which is researching turning dairy cow manure into a clean-burning biomethane fuel. Part of the money will install three new biomethane-powered engines in buses used by Bellair Charters of Bellingham.

Western Washington University’s Vehicle Research Institute has been awarded a $500,000 grant for turning cow manure into clean-burning bio-methane for vehicles.
Part of the funding from the Department of Energy will go toward placing new engines in three buses used by Bellingham’s Bellair Charters.

Smart Trips - a local program designed to encourage people to walk, bicycle, ride the bus or carpool -would get $750,000 under a bill awaiting consideration by the U.S. Senate.
The earmark was won by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who also got in the bill $1 million for Whatcom Transportation Authority to help replace its aging bus fleet and $750,000 for the Vehicle Research Institute at Western Washington University.

I’ve already covered urine as an alternative fuel source, now here’s one that is udderly unbelieveable! Western Washington University’s Vehicle Research Institute in Bellingham has a lot of 40 plus vehicles that were built from scratch. There is one vehicle in particular, a Viking 32, which the institute’s program director Eric Leonhardt says is the world’s first plug-in hybrid car powered by biogas, or fuel derived from cow manure.

Elizabeth Matalomani was shocked when she received her second semester schedule at Granite Falls High School and saw that she was enrolled in a manufacturing class.Eighteen girls recently visited the Western Washington University Vehicle Research Institute to learn about wind tunnels and testing aerodynamic features of cars.

Elizabeth Matalomani was shocked when she received her second semester schedule at Granite Falls High School and saw that she was enrolled in a manufacturing class.Eighteen girls recently visited the Western Washington University Vehicle Research Institute to learn about wind tunnels and testing aerodynamic features of cars.