Apparently, a year's worth of human excrement is equal to a measly 2.1 gallons of diesel, but when you collect an entire city's worth of crap, you get a decent amount of fuel. The poop of 250,000 people is enough to operate 80 busses for 62,000 miles each, which is no small thing. So in Norway, they're going to start collecting it and running public transportation on it. Because hey, why not? [Slate via Technabob]

Experts say it takes about 5-7 kg of coffee grounds to get one liter of biofuel, which with a medium-sized production would yield a cost of about $1 per gallon. Plus, it's already used: you can just walk around to your local coffeeshops and convenience stores and stock up the same way you would on vegetable oil.

Creating fuel from the grounds uses the same procedure as other biodiesels, transesterification, which is sort of complicated to explain but fairly inexpensive. The US estimates we consume over 7 tons of coffee each year, which would yield about 340 million gallons of biodiesel.

But mostly, a subtle coffee scent might overcome the significantly less savory odors currently dominating my car. [The Economist]

Dr. Craig Allen Bittner claimed that his patients actually requested that their fat be used to power his car. You know, for the environment's sake. But of course, he also recently shut down his practice and moved to South America after becoming the target of a bunch of lawsuits, so he's not exactly the most trustworthy source in the world.

But powering a car with human fat is in fact possible, although the fat, like animal fat, would need to be treated to remove fatty acids. Lots of companies such as Tyson and Nova Biosource are looking to power their own fleets of vehicles with the animal waste that they produce already.

But really, the main question is this: what did it smell like to drive behind Bittner's Navigator? I'm not sure I want to know. [Forbes]

[Robert Q. Riley Enterprises via MAKE]

It's a clear sign of the desperations airlines are feeling with the prices of jet fuel rising to, ahem, stratospheric levels. With jatropha costing 20-30% less than fuel, it looks like an attractive alternative. It's not derived from a food source like ethanol is, which is a big plus for ANZ. It's also a hearty plant that can cope with poor soil and a lack of water, making it easy to come by. You know, because it's a weed. What did you think the headline meant? [FlightGlobal; Thanks Jason!]

Fanola, the company says, is a biologically clean product which emits nothing but water vapor and CO2. Heating inserts ensure that the only thing burning in your shag pad, besides the fireplace, will be the flames of love. The fireplace technology comes in a variety of designs, so you can mix and match with every piece of Ikea furniture ever created.

Pricing info was not available, but can you really put a price on staying classy? [Planika Fires via greenupgrader]

The device itself weighs less than one pound and it can "convert (or reform) a continuous stream of hydrogen from fuels like gasoline, diesel, vegetable oil, biodiesel, propane, natural gas, even the glycerol byproduct from biodiesel manufacturing" using an "array of microchannels containing patented catalytic sites." There are still major obstacles to overcome (the fact that there is no renewable source of energy to produce hydrogen being chief among them), but InnovaTek still plans on using the $500,000 they secured from a deal with Chevron to aid them in their plans to commercially license the microreactors by 2009. [Gas 2.0]

With offerings like compressed natural gas and E85, Lewis feels like he's basically not throwing his money down a the petro-state rathole and since he's in California, he gets extra karma. The future is here. – John Biggs

Gas station looks at gas-free future [AP]