The cappuccino car that runs on coffee... so will you have to use the filter lane?

By Ray Massey for the Daily Mail
Updated: 19:42 EDT, 9 March 2010

A car that runs on coffee is unveiled today - but it certainly won't take the grind out of commuting.

And at between 25 and 50 times the cost of running a car on petrol, the invention won't please any motor industry bean-counters either.

Nicknamed the Car-puccino, it has been created using a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco bought for £400 and chosen for its resemblance to the time-travelling DeLorean in the movie Back To The Future.

Car-puccino: The 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco will be driven from Manchester to London powered only by roasted coffee granules

Enlarge  

The car will be driven the 210 miles between Manchester and London powered only by roasted coffee granules.

It has been built by a team from the BBC1 science programme Bang Goes The Theory and will go on display at the Big Bang science fair in Manchester to show how fuels other than conventional petrol and diesel can power vehicles.

The team calculates the Carpuccino will do three miles per kilo of ground coffee - the equivalent of about 56 espressos per mile.

The journey will use about 70 kilos of ground coffee which, at supermarket prices of between £13 and £26 a kilo depending on brand and quality, will cost between £910 and £1,820, or between 25 and 50 times the £36 cost of petrol for the journey.

56 espressos per mile: A member of the team Bang Goes The Theory works to convert the car

In total, the trip will use the equivalent of 11,760 espressos, and the team will have to take 'coffee breaks' roughly every 30 to 45 miles to pour in more granules.

They will also have to stop about every 60 miles to clean out the 'coffee filters' to rid them of the soot and tar which is also generated by the process.

So despite a top speed of 60mph, the many stops mean the going will be slow, with the journey taking around ten hours.

Sadly, the inventors will still have to pay duty on their coffee fuel - even though tax collectors at Her Majesty's Revenue and Custom haven't yet worked out how much.

Nick Watson, producer of Bang Goes The Theory, said: 'Coffee, like wood or coal, has some carbon content so you can use it as a fuel.

'The coffee needs to be very dry and in pellets to allow the air to move through the pile of coffee as it burns. The brand doesn't matter.'

He said the same gasification process could be used to power a car on other unusual fuels, such as 'woodchips or walnut shells, construction debris or agricultural waste or landfill'.

To save money and to help the environment, the team taking the coffee-powered car from London to Manchester will use waste coffee grounds, collected from a branch of Costa Coffee, to power their vehicle.

Big Bang Fair patron Sir Anthony Cleaver, chairman of Engineering UK said:'The Big Bang allows us to show young people just some of the fantastic careers that are possible with a background in science, technology and maths.'
Sponsors include industrial giants including BAe Systems, Shell, Siemens and AstraZenica.

:: The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists’ and Engineers’ Fair  runs from March 11 to 13 at Manchester’s Central Convention Complex. It is free to attend. Details at www.thebigbangfair.co.uk
:: The 'Bang Goes the Theory'  series  airs on BBC1 from 7.30pm Monday March 15, with the coffee-powered car featuring on May 3.