Car-puccino Runs on Coffee Power

Posted by Michael Hoven on March 14, 2010 at 7:10 am

“

The Carpuccino, formerly a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco. (image: dailymail.co.uk)

Some consider electricity or hydrogen to be the power source for the cars of the future, but a BBC science program, Bang Goes the Theory, offers another possibility: the coffee-powered car. Nicknamed the “Car-puccino,” it’s a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that now gasifies coffee grounds to fuel the car, reported the UK’s Daily Mail on Monday.

While hopelessly impractical—running the car on coffee costs 25 to 50 times more than using gasoline—the gasification process used by the Carpuccino would work for a variety of other potential fuel sources, said Nick Watson, the producer of Bang Goes the Theory. The team developed the car as a dramatic example that vehicles can run on alternative fuels.

The car will be on display at Manchester’s Big Bang science fair, after it drives the 210 miles from London, using about 150 pounds of coffee—the equivalent of 56 espressos for every mile. While the car has a top speed of 60 miles per hour, the drive will take nearly 10 hours, because the team will have to stop every 30 to 45 miles to add more coffee, and every 60 miles to clean out the coffee filters.

The car-paccino, explained. (image: dailymail.co.uk)

This article was posted on Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 7:10 am and is filed under Blog, biofuels

One Response to “Car-puccino Runs on Coffee Power”

1. March 15, 2010 at 12:22 pm
   Car-Puccino, l’auto che fa 3 miglia con 1kg di caffè macinato says: says:
   

   [...] Via | DailyMail Foto | heatingoil [...]