Biodiesel is old news: sunflower, rapeseed and soybean oils have all been pressed into service as sources of automobile fuel. But how about coffee-fueled cars? Zayed Al-Hamamre and colleagues at the University of Jordan think that spent coffee grounds - which typically contain about 10% oil - could be a novel source of biodiesel. They're working on the best way to extract and process the oils in spent coffee grounds, and their latest results were published in a recent issue of the journal
Fuel.
Under optimal conditions, Al-Hamamre argues, we could get around 1,000 tonnes of biodiesel from coffee grounds each year - without using up more precious arable land.
Those coffee-powered cars might once day be constructed from
Cannabis sativa, also known as hemp. James Meredith and his colleagues at Warwick University believe hemp fibre could replace carbon fibre in automobile bodywork.
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