Step aside gasoline, because there's a turbo-charged fuel coming to hit the streets of London, England!
It's no surprise that many urban environments use cafes and coffee beans to ensure their city runs as smoothly as possible, however, this is the first instance of the caffeinated cherries powering the transportation itself.
So what is the science behind taking our precious lattes away from us and using it to turn motors instead of minds?
Well, coffee drinkers rejoice, because the project won't actually be depriving anyone of their morning cup of joe.
Transport for London has been investigating the use of bio-fuels as alternative sources for energy for some time, but now they have stumbled onto a way to repurpose the grounds from the bottom of our mugs.
That's right, they'll be using the waste product to create a new bio-fuel. The company responsible for the new development, "bio-bean," says they have already created enough coffee oil to power a bus for an entire year.
Just how much coffee does it take to do that?
Bio-fuel has already been developed from other food-related resources, such as canola oil, corn, and meat-based sources. In fact, London has already begun using these new fuels to power their transportation systems.
However, this is the first time that one of their 9,500 buses will be run solely on coffee-derived oil.
It is an interesting recycling concept. Londoners already create 200,000 tonnes of coffee waste a year, and the company has used some of that to create over 1,500 gallons of coffee oil so far.
The firm believes it takes 2.55 million cups of coffee to create the amount necessary to power a single bus for the year. Right now they are on track to running just one, but if Londoners want to ride the coffee express, they'll need to drink more of the java juice than they ever have before.
