Egyptian students have built a machine they say can produce fuel from worn-out vehicle tires, after big rises in energy prices as part of recent economic reforms.

The device heats the tires until they reach evaporation point. The vapor then enters a condenser.

The product is "very similar in properties to pure diesel and the carbon or black coal is just left inside the container," said Mohamed Saeed Ali, one of 12 students who worked on the machine as a graduation project.

The students are currently searching for investors for their project.

"Instead of polluting the environment, we recycle them (the tires) properly in an eco-friendly manner," Saeed said.

Egypt raised fuel prices by up to 50 percent in June as a condition of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund program the country signed last year.