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Coffee can apparently do more than just get YOU going in the morning – it can also fuel your car. ‘The Bean Machine’ has recently hit a top speed of 65.5 mph on a U.K. airport runway, etching a spot for them in the Guinness Book of World Records at setting the top land speed record for cars fueled by coffee.
The vehicle didn’t use coffee brew, it was fueled by pellets made from coffee bean chaff. Chaff is the skin that comes off the beans during the roasting process. The creater of the vehicle, Martin Bacon, then heated and broke them down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, cooled the hydrogen, and then filtered and combusted it in an internal combustion engine. This is actually a common process called ‘gasification’ and was used to create coal -powered vehicles during WWII.
Bacon told reporters that the car can travel 55 miles on a 22 pound bag of bean chaff pellets. The heater that enables the process is powered by charcoal.
The car is being sponsored by The Co-operative, a food retailer that is sponsoring Bacon’s third coffee-fueled car in celebration of 10 years of them selling Fairtrade coffee.