Scientists have found a way to crack the petrol crisis - by running cars on hazelnuts, it was disclosed yesterday.

The idea is to use the shells to generate hydrogen for fuel cells.

British researchers came up with the solution after studying the problem of how to power the cars of the future and Murat Dogru, from the University of Newcastle, believes hazelnuts could be the answer.

He and his colleagues tested the theory by feeding hazelnut shells into a container called a gasifier.

The chamber contained solid fuel lighters and was fitted with an air pump. Controlling the oxygen supply determined the amount of heat given off and the gases produced by the shells.

Hydrogen made up 15 per cent of the combustion gases, New Scientist magazine reported yesterday.

Mr Dogru said the system was cheap to run. "You don't supply a lot of extra energy," he said. "You just ignite it for a few minutes, then the nut shells fuel it."

The "exhaust" gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, but Tony Bridgwater, of Aston University, Birmingham, said it should not be a problem.

Both methane and carbon monoxide could be converted to carbon dioxide and hydrogen by reacting them with water.

Then standard procedures could be used to strip out the carbon dioxide, he said.

BMW is pioneering the technology and has produced a prototype car powered by a fuel cell.

Mr Dogru pointed out that Turkey, the world's largest producer of hazelnuts, incinerates about 250,000 tonnes of shells a year - enough for 1,000 of the BMW prototypes to each travel 32,500 kilometres.