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ENVIRONMENT: Swedes Going Green in Emergency

Ida Karlsson

STOCKHOLM, Jul 28 2009 (IPS) - Patients in Stockholm can now be rushed to hospital in an ambulance that runs on processed sewage.

Stockholm has several biogas-fuelled buses and waste collection lorries, but this is the world's first green ambulance – evidence of the reliability of green alternatives to conventional fuel. "Only biogas!" a board on the ambulance proclaims proudly.

"We can run this ambulance thanks to what is flushed down the toilet," says healthcare worker Tomas Buxbaum. "We run the ambulance on gas from processed sewage from households in the neighbouring area." The ambulance is run by the Stockholm County Council and AISAB, Stockholm's ambulance healthcare services.

Buxbaum's colleague Cecilia Larsson says the ambulance is less noisy and easier to drive than other vehicles. The only disadvantage currently is the range. Stockholm has just 11 stations at present for refilling vehicles running on biogas.

Vehicles filling up here produce no net carbon dioxide emissions. The ambulance does not use studded tyres, a winter tyre that provides better grip but which throws up harmful asphalt.

The ambulance is green in other ways too. The fittings are made of environment-friendly material. The very sirens are designed to cut air resistance. All this helps with a 5 to 10 percent improvement in fuel efficiency.

The ambulance is 17 percent more expensive to buy than a regular comparable vehicle. But biogas is cheaper than petrol, and can bring an annual saving of up to 2,800 dollars.

"In two years 50 percent of all transport within Stockholm County Council will be on renewable fuels," Anna Linusson, head of the environment department at Stockholm County Council tells IPS.

The council has ambitious plans for ecologically sustainable development. New biogas and hybrid buses have brought down noise levels, and mean healthier air with much lower emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

A pipeline connects a bus depot to a sewage treatment plant in the south of Stockholm. The fuel consumption of the new hybrid buses is 25 to 30 percent lower than other buses. The buses are fitted with batteries that store energy when the bus brakes.

"We also had fuel cell-driven buses under an EU project, that only emitted steam, but they were extremely expensive so we could not afford to keep them in operation," Anna Linusson told IPS.

Of the 1,900 buses in Stockholm, about 80 are biogas-fuelled, 450 are run on ethanol, and the rest run on diesel or petrol. Stockholm Public Transport plans to have 250 biogas-fuelled buses on the road next year, and 500 by 2012.

Per Ekberg, director of the planning department of Stockholm Public Transport, says that by 2025 all buses in Stockholm will run on renewable fuel.

The future is also near in Uppsala city north of Stockholm. The city has brought in an experiment with the 'track-taxi' – driverless, electric-powered vehicles that run on rails constructed five metres high. The test track has been built by the Korean company Vectus. The small route in Uppsala will eventually be expanded to run between towns.

The Swedish Energy Agency also plans to make Sweden the Mecca of electric cars. The Finnish energy company Fortum and the City of Stockholm are building a pay-to-pump electric car infrastructure. More than 100 recharging stations will be built in Stockholm this year.

But it is a long road ahead. The Swedish Transport Agency says there are at present 215,000 vehicles in the country that run on biogas, ethanol, or are electric or hybrid vehicles. That is three percent of the registered vehicles in Sweden. There is a strong push now to change that number fast.