Hot air is helping to produce ground coffee in the Friend editorial offices in London.

An innovative ‘green energy’ project, developed by the engineering department of University College London (UCL), is harnessing hot air produced by trains on the underground passing below Friends House.

The new ‘thermo-generator’ is based on a unique, rotary piston concept. ‘It is at the forefront of new developments in air-technology,’ said Professor
E I Addio of UCL. ‘For the first time in history this technology has given us the ability to harness excess hot air to create clean, renewable, energy.’

A new coffee grinder, recently installed at vast expense in the Friend editorial offices, is being powered exclusively by hot air produced by the ‘whoosh’ of passing underground trains. The Friend assures readers that all coffee beans will be Fairtrade.

‘The underground is a great source of cheap energy,’ said Professor Addio. ‘We also hope to install a thermo- generator at a location on the banks of the Thames.

‘Prodigious amounts of excess hot air are being produced in a chamber at Westminister. The resource is completely untapped, utterly constant, absolutely predictable and almost limitless in supply.’