A pair of scientists from the University of Manitoba may have worked out a way to get fuel out of the millions of cups of Tim Horton's coffee that Canadians discard every year.

David Levin, a professor of biosystems engineering, and microbiologist Richard Sparling were working on a $10.5-million Genome Canada grant to find ways to produce biofuels such as ethanol or hydrogen when they stumbled onto the secret ingredient: Timmies' cups.

They discovered that grinding up the sturdy disposable cups then introducing bacteria to the mix creates a mushy sludge that can then be converted into biofuel.

And Levin says that only Tim Horton's cups will do: those from Starbucks and other coffee chains aren't as tasty to the bacteria.

"There's clearly a difference in the cups. We don't know exactly why," he said.

The research they've done so far shows that whatever is in the Tim Hortons' cups, the bacteria like it and can convert the cups into usable fuel.

Canadians drink an estimated one billion cups of Tim Horton's coffee each year and most cities don't have the recycling capability to break down the disposable cups.

"If we can collect those and turn them into a value-added product then we avoid clogging up the landfill and make a useful product," Levin said

Until now, corn and wheat were the most common source of biofuel, but Levin says disposable paper products like coffee cups are a better alternative.

"Biofuels made from food materials creates a lot of controversy (and) debate about whether you should be growing crops for food or crops for fuel," he said.

The scientists' current funding doesn't apply to research on biofuels so Levin and Sparling are looking for grants that would allow them to expand on the coffee cup fuel application.

"If we were able to get some dedicated support, we could expand the non-recyclable paper products we could look at," Levin said.

That could mean getting gas from coffee cups from other chains, but also from paper towels, trays and almost any other disposable paper product, he said.

With files from CTV Winnipeg's Jill Macyshon