A few years back, in 2010, an old 1980s Volkswagen Scirocco was converted to run on coffee beans for a television experiment. The project earned its nickname Car-Puccino and was showcased during a British program that explored scientific ideas and engineering concepts. The car received a custom setup featuring a vat loaded with ground coffee, giving it a look reminiscent of a famous time-traveling car from popular cinema. The coffee was heated to a high temperature and then cooled, producing hydrogen gas that was directed into the engine in place of traditional gasoline.
Engineers hoped the coffee-derived hydrogen would power the vehicle’s combustion. The result was a remarkable demonstration of alternative fuel concepts, illustrating how a fuel source could be transformed into energy for an internal combustion engine. The Car-Puccino traveled from London to Manchester, covering roughly 200 miles, while consuming about 70 kilograms of coffee. That translates to roughly 20 kilograms of coffee per 100 kilometers. The journey necessitated fuel stops about every 50 to 70 kilometers, underscoring the challenges of sustaining such an unconventional fuel system in real-world driving. Along the way, the vehicle encountered multiple breakdowns, and the overall trip extended to around 10 hours of travel time. These hurdles highlighted the gap between theoretical possibilities and practical reliability in experimental powertrains.
The Car-Puccino represents a curious intersection of entertainment, engineering curiosity, and fuel experimentation. It demonstrated the lengths to which researchers and hobbyists will go to visualize how energy can be converted into motion when traditional fuels are not used. The project also sparked conversations about energy density, fuel logistics, and the realities of maintaining a vehicle powered by a nonstandard source. Observers noted the ingenuity and the evident limitations of creating a coffee-based energy system that could sustain sustained highway travel. The demonstrations offered a playful yet insightful look at how alternative energy ideas perform under pressure and how far technology has progressed in making clean, practical substitutes for petroleum-based fuels.
A picture: YouTube