Drivers could soon be filling up with fuel made from liquefied coal after the European Parliament asked for a Euro 60 million annual research fund.

The fund will pay for research into gasifying and liquefying coal to develop green motor fuels, notably hydrogen.

The money will come from a budget excess left over from the EU European Coal and Steel Community, an international industrial cooperation organisation that was scrapped in 2002.

It always spent money on researching improvements in coal and steel production, and now MEPs want this cash to develop ‘greener’ ways of using coal.

A parliamentary report stressed coal “gasification and liquefaction like hydrogen can be used as motor fuels, helping to reduce CO2 emissions”.