Video Of The Week - A Coffee Powered Vehicle?

We all know that coffee can get humans all wired up and active, but powering a truck? That has to be a first! However, it is what engineer Martin Bacon and a group of volunteers from Teesdale Conservation in Durham, England were able to successfully demonstrate, on February, 19th, 2013.

The team began by removing the excess weight from the Ford P100 pickup truck they selected to conduct the experiment. They then modified its engine so that it could run on hydrogen - produced when coffee chaff pallets, (the waste from coffee production) are heated in a charcoal fire.

The modified hydrogen-powered pickup was able to exceed 65 mph, the fastest land speed achieved by a car running on gas using organic waste. Not surprisingly, it was immediately inducted into the Guinness World Records.

Impressed? You will be even more so, when you find out that this is not the first time Teesdale Conservation has built a coffee powered vehicle worthy of a world record. In 2010, they powered a modified 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco and drove it for about 209 miles all the way from London to Manchester- the longest drive ever undertaken, by an espresso powered vehicle!

Of course, Martin is not the first person to have conjured up the idea of a food-powered vehicle. In 2009, researchers from Warwick University designed a Formula 3 racing car that ran on chocolate extract and was able to achieve speeds of 145 mph. What was even more impressive is that the entire car was built from recycled materials. Unfortunately, it was banned from the championship because its unusual fuel did not meet the regulations!

Resource: Dailymail.co.uk,Journallive.co.uk