A study has unveiled the possibility of used coffee to be converted into a biofuel.
The report in the US Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry says that the oil found in spent coffee could be used to power cars and trucks.
Researchers from the University of Nevada in Reno sourced waste coffee from a multinational coffee chain and used a cheap process to extract the oil.
"It is easy and economical to extract oil from used coffee grounds compared to traditional feedstocks," Mano Misra, an author of the study told scidev.net.
"Further, coffee oil has some antioxidants which are required for biofuel stability."
He added that the discovery "would be ideal for countries where coffee is produced".
"A lot of defective coffee beans are discarded into the landfills every year, he explained.
"Processing these beans as well as coffee grounds would be an economical approach.
Meanwhile, a New Zealand passenger plane has successfully completed a two-hour test flight being partly powered by vegetable oil.
Half of the fuel in one engine of the Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 was made up of jatropha plant oil.
