To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight retailers highlight the credentials of many leading Fairtrade products, like bananas, chocolate, coffee and, eh, well, those three. Not the Co-op though – it has gone one better this year after launching its way into the Guinness Book of World Records by sponsoring the construction of a coffee bean powered car. The car, which looks a bit like UTC’s old Ford Sierra, reached speeds of 65.5 miles per hour and was presented with the accolade by a suit from Guinness on 19th Feb, at Woodford airfield, Manchester.
Here’s the sciencey bit, courtesy of the boffin behind the project, Martin Bacon: “Coffee chaff pellets, which are produced from the waste in coffee production, are heated in a charcoal fire, where they break down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The gas is then cooled and filtered before hydrogen is combusted to drive the engine.” Easy as that then.