Flint's Swedish Connection

Flint Expatriate Mike Martin hard at work in Sweden.

Linköping, Sweden has been in the news since Flint teamed up with Swedish Biogas International to build a plant in the Vehicle City that will convert human waste from the city's wastewater facility into biogas for use as vehicle fuel, heat and electricity. The King of Sweden even stopped by Flint for a visit.

"Linköping, the fifth-largest city in Sweden, now operates public buses and trash-collecting trucks, as well as a train line and some private taxis on biogas [made] from methane produced from the entrails of slaughtered cows," writes Edward M. Gomez on sfgate.com.

Luckily, Flint already has its own representative in Linköping. When he's not fly fishing and watching hockey, Flint Expatriate Mike Martin is working on a Ph. D. and conducting research at Linköping University. He lived at 118 Orville Street and attended Cody Academy, McKinley Middle School and later Swartz Creek High School. He went on to major in mechanical engineering at Michigan Tech and was able to study sustainable development on a project in Norway. That led to a master's degree in Sustainable Development and Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

"Linköping can provide GREAT examples to Flint as I personally know," he writes on his blog, Mike in Sweden. "Much of the reports you'll see on TV are not made up, they are true. We recycle, use wastes, drive small cars with biogas and have heated streets and bike everywhere. Its just life here, period. It can be done! So, Flint, DO IT!"

Mike's research deals with making biofuel production better by "using by-products and energy to collaborate and make biofuels from other biofuels."

"There are so many ways the Swedes benefit from environmental technology, and it is a big money maker and earth saver. It doesn't have to be depriving anyone of anything, it helps everything. "