What are you doing in my swamp?!

The race for alternative fuels has gathered pace in the last few years.

And I’ve seen a few quirky innovations – cars running on cooking oil, vans powered by used coffee grounds, and now…

A motorbike that runs on swamp water.

Yep, a Dutch artist and engineer has invented one of the strangest alternative fuel engines we’ve ever come across.

CLICK HERE to read the full story of the swamp-powered motorcycle

I’ve got visions of Shrek waking up in his swamp and powering up his modified motorbike for a quick trip to the shops now.

But this is no fairy tale – the technology behind it is fascinating…

The bike has had a few additions, including a bottle of fluid sitting atop the handlebars, a balloon inside a cylinder behind the seat, and wood strapped onto the frame.

All working in tandem to ensure the bike can run on methane harvested from swamps.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and has a significant impact on global warming – it’s considered more harmful than CO2 for the environment.

It’s given off as a by-product of farming and livestock, as well as the decay of organic matter, hence why swamps are a hotbed of methane.

The Slootmotor, as the methane bike is known, converts methane that would have ordinarily been released into the atmosphere into CO2, which lessens the impact on the environment.

It’s not the most time-efficient alternative fuel, though – it takes around 8 hours to collect enough gas to power the bike for 12 miles.