Researchers always bring us new evidence that we don’t need oil in order to use our cars. With a little inspiration and some more talent, we can also use coffee as fuel.
On monday, we will see the automobile that runs on coffee, however it won’t be a a market breaker, that’s because fuel costs are 25-50 higher than one of a car which runs on gas.
Nicknamed Carpuccino, the car was designed using a Volkswagen Scirocco, 1988, bought with 400 punds and picked because of it’s ressemblance with the car from the “Back to the future” movie.
The car will be driven 338 km’s, between Manchester and London, and will run entirely on coffee beans.
The vehicle was builed by a BBC ” Bang Goes the Theory” team and will be presented at a science fair in Manchester, to prove that there are other alternatives to oil.
The team thinks that Carpuccino will require 1 kg’s of coffee every 5 km’s – that’s equal to 56 espresso / 1.60 km.
For the entire trip they will use 70 kg’s of coffee. The team will take a “coffee break” every 70 km’s to refuel.
Once every 100 km’s they will have to stop again, in order to clean the coffee filter.
The maximum speed Carpuccino can reach is 100 kmph.
How it works: the coffee beans are placed into a gas cylinder and warmed up to 700 degrees. The coffee will then result in hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The gas then goes through some pipes for cooling after which it is transported into two filters. Eventually, the clean gas goes in the engine, where it burns, thus giving the car energy.
