MicroFueler Ethanol | Mashup
The MicroFueler weighs about 200 pounds and hooks up to a water and 110 or 220 volt power supply and wastewater drain just like a washing machine. It uses raw sugar (not the refined white stuff) and a proprietary time-release yeast mixture as feedstock. The MicroFueler has its own pump and hose - just like the pump at your corner gas station - so you can easily fill up your car. “It’s so simple, anyone can make their own fuel,” Quinn says. Depending upon the cost of electricity and water, he says, the MicroFueler can produce ethanol for less than $1 a gallon. [1]
The company says that families would save a barrel of cash in the long run.
It estimates, for instance, that a family will save about $4,200 per year on fuel (assuming gas costs $3.60 per gallon and ethanol costs $1 per gallon) if it has two cars that get 22 miles per gallon (9.3 kilometers per liter) and are driven a total of 34,500 miles (55,500 kilometers) annually.
Automobiles do not require their fuel to be 100 percent ethanol, so greater savings are possible if drivers dilute the finished product with water (as long at that mixture contains at least 65 percent ethanol).
E-Fuel chose sugar as its raw material (instead of corn feedstock or cellulose ) because of its ease and abundance: corn feedstock or cellulose have to be broken down into sugar before they can be turned into ethanol. E-Fuel said it plans to eventually build corn and cellulose versions of its microfuelers, although no time frame has been set.[2]
Instead of tapping gasoline from an underground tank, the pump’s back end plugs into home power and water supplies to make ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon (3.8 liters), according to E-Fuel. The company says one of the machine’s top selling points is its sweet tooth. It ferments fuel from sugar, the price of which is historically cheap as global supplies are glutted.
That means it avoids the Achilles heel of today’s U.S. ethanol system — reliance on corn — which has been blamed for helping to spike global food prices. “There’s no mother in America crying that their kids aren’t getting enough sugar,” Tom Quinn, CEO and founder of E-Fuel said in an interview.[3] “I’m from Silicon Valley and I’ve worked with some very talented entrepreneurs in my lifetime,” explained Quinn, whose previous start-up Gyration was responsible for a patent in Nintendo’s “Wiimote” controller. “A couple years ago, I sensed this paradigm shift that we’re all feeling today.” He was referring to fossil fuel shortages and the rising cost of gasoline. With gas prices well over $3 per gallon, and no real middle ground in the market between industrial biofuels (there are still only 1,200 ethanol stations in the U.S., and only three in the entire state of New York) and “moonshining” operations that can be difficult and dangerous, he saw the opportunity to create the EFuel100.
“It’s almost third-grade science to make ethanol,” Quinn said.[4] E-Fuel explains that it takes about 10-14 pounds of sugar to make one gallon of ethanol. When using store-bought sugar, which costs about 20 cents per pound in the U.S., plus the cost of electricity, the cost to produce a gallon of ethanol would be roughly equivalent to today’s gas prices in the U.S.
However, Butterfield and Quinn note that inedible sugar can be bought from Mexico for about 2.5 cents per pound under the North American Free Trade Agreement effective this past January.[5]
The cost of operating and maintaining the EFuel100 vary, depending on rebates (a $1,000 federal tax credit is available) and the cost of the sugar feedstock–it takes 14 pounds (6.4 kilograms) of feedstock to produce a gallon of ethanol. E-Fuel also offers its Carbon Credit Coupon Program, which will allow its customers to buy discounted E-Fuel-certified sugar feedstock for an estimated 15 to 30 cents per pound, the company said Thursday.[2] The Micro-Fueler could also be eligible for federal tax credits that can bring the price down by about $3000 and the company is creating a distribution network for “ethanol-grade” sugar from Mexico that could cost as little as 3 cents a pound, compared to 20 cents for regular sugar. They claim the machine can make ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon and could pay for itself in less than two years. Yeah, this should work if you don’t mind waiting a week to fill your tank with the one or two gallons of ethanol it would produce in that time.[6]
You’re all set if you’ve got a flex-fuel vehicle. It’s an open question whether switching to home-brewed ethanol will save you much money. The MicroFueler costs $9,995, although federal tax credits can cut the price to $6,998. Another $16 buys you enough yeast to make about 560 gallons of ethanol, and you’ll have to pay for the sugar and water.[1] The MicroFueler from E-Fuel enables ethanol to be produced from sugar, yeast and water and draws power from a conventional domestic mains electricity supply. It will produce fuel for under $1 (50p) per gallon, claims the manufacturer. The unit can also produce ethanol for around 10c per gallon from waste alcohol, making it an attractive proposition for businesses such as breweries, restaurants, pubs and bars.[7] E-Fuel says the MicroFueler could produce ethanol for less than a dollar per gallon. A Silicon Valley start-up called E-Fuel is showing exactly how ethanol can live up to its name as “the people’s fuel.” The company recently announced that it will soon start selling a home ethanol system, the E-Fuel 100 MicoFueler, which will allow anyone to make ethanol from sugar, water, yeast, and electricity in their own backyard.[5]
The world’s first home ethanol system, which allows consumers to create their own ethanol and pump it directly into their cars, was unveiled today by the E-Fuel Corporation ( www.efuel100.com ). The revolutionary EFuel100 MicroFueler(TM) is the first product that allows anyone to reduce their dependency on oil, greatly diminish their carbon footprint and produce fuel for under $1.00 per gallon.[8] Courtesy of E-Fuel Corp. A company banking on drivers’ weariness of skyrocketing gasoline prices unveiled a home refinery device on Thursday offering another option: ethanol. E-Fuel Corporation says its EFuel100 MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons (132 liters) of ethanol a week that consumers can pump directly into their cars and trucks.[2]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won’t spike food prices. E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the “MicroFueler” touting it as the world’s first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars.[3]
NEW YORK–Meet the EFuel100 MicroFueler, which parent company E-Fuel says is the “world’s first home ethanol product.” It’s a personal refinery system that hooks up to a water source, a power source, and a waste water disposal outlet–”just like a washing machine,” as Floyd Butterfield, E-Fuel’s vice president of biofuels and technology, described to reporters in a press conference Thursday in New York.[9]
The MicroFueler could be very worthwhile for small businesses and restaurants that discard a lot of alcohol, like the Los Gatos Brewing Company, which told NBC11 that it discards about 5,000 gallons of alcoholic drinks each year. Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield founded the E-Fuel Corporation in March 2007 to create efficient ethanol micro-refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil, according to their Web site.[10] Then it could cost as little as a dollar a gallon to produce ethanol with the MicroFueler. Quinn also noted that he’s used leftover alcohol as an alternative feedstock to sugar, and the only cost is for the electricity.
“It’s going to cause havoc in the market and cause great financial stress in the oil industry,” Quinn told The New York Times.[5]
According to the company, the MicroFueler allows consumers to create ethanol with “sugar, yeast and water, and a standard household 110-220 AC power supply.” They claim that businesses, such as breweries, bars and restaurants can even use discarded alcohol beverages to create ethanol, for as little as $0.10 per gallon.[6]
There is no combustion inside the device, which runs on a standard household 110- to 220-volt AC power supply (consuming about 150 watts per day) and uses a membrane system to distill the sugar, yeast and water solution required to make ethanol rather than combustion heating elements, as commercial ethanol producers do.
Interested drivers in the U.S. can put in their orders now for their own EFuel100 MicroFueler at the company’s Web site with a $3,000 down payment toward the total $10,000 tab; the first units are expected to ship some time this fall.[2]
Ethanol fuel is made from a combination of water, yeast and sugar, Tom Quinn, E-Fuel founder and CEO, said at the press conference, adding that the process was no more complicated than what is taught in “third-grade science.” The adoption of ethanol has been held back because drivers do not have access to the fuel, he said, pointing out that there are only 1,200 ethanol stations in the U.S., compared with about 176,000 gas stations.[2] Making local sugar-based ethanol fuel production possible, E-Fuel can solve the commercial ethanol transportation and pump station problems while providing consumers lower cost fuel due to micro efficiencies.”
The portable MicroFueler unit houses the same consumer-friendly LCD touch screen interface and hose pumping system found at the corner gas station, so consumers can produce where they consume, eliminating energy waste and saving dollars.[8] I’m in Michigan so we’ve got quite a few ethanol stations, but we also have lots of cheap sugar thanks to sugar beets. This might be a good way to cut my fuel bill for driving and farming. It takes more than 35 gallons of ethanol just to grow the sugar (fertilizer), package and transport it, pump the water to your home and generate the electricity to run the machine. Thats not even counting the energy cost of manufacturing the still.[1] The pump plugs into a domestic power socket and water supplies to make ethanol from sugar for as little as $1 a gallon (3.8 litres), according to E-Fuel. E-Fuels says it will link its customers to cheap surplus sugar supplies, including inedible sugar from Mexico that sells at a fraction of the price of supermarket packets. It also hopes to get users to help pay for feedstock by selling carbon credits for using the machine, since making ethanol from sugar emits fewer greenhouse gases than making it from maize.[11]
We all know what happened with corn prise since people started using it to produce ethanol. Using food as ethanol source does not work in general - rich nations will have their relatively cheaper fuel, poor people will starve because of the consequent and innevitable rise in the prices. If this machine distilled ethanol from mowed grass instead of perfectly edible sugar, then it would make more sense.[5] If you believe in evolution, that is. Ethanol is the wrong way to go. burning up our food stores to compensate for our lack of energy from petroleum will just lead to higher food prices. we need to start focusing on getting entirely away from petroleum based fuels and focus on renewable energy sources, such as geothermal, solar, tidal, wind, water and start investing in future potential energy sources such as nuclear fusion and antimatter. we also need to start investing in the infrastructure necessary to make these energy sources available to the consumer base. for example, if we took the gas tax money and invested it in replacing every parking meter with an electric outlet for plug-in electric cars, then charge for the voltage, you’d have people switching away from gasoline powered vehicles in a hurry. I see this, not as a problem that we can delay or avoid, but as a challenge that we need to overcome.[1]
If sugar currently sells for about 20 cents a pound in the United States, and you need up to 14 pounds of it to make a gallon of ethanol - that’s $2.8 just to buy sugar - The cost will be the same or more than buying gasoline at the gas station.[1] Sugar at retail is $22.10 per 50 lb bag, from Costco. That comes to $0.4422/lb retail price. It would cost me $7.52 per gallon of ethanol.[4] One of the company’s main objectives with the program is to keep the cost of ethanol less than $1 per gallon.[2]
Cars running on sugar-based ethanol produce 85% fewer carbon emissions than gasoline. Businesses, such as breweries, bars and restaurants can even use discarded alcohol beverages to create ethanol, for as little as $0.10 per gallon.[8] Connect it to a power source and a water source, add sugar “feedstock” and yeast or discarded alcohol (yes, that could mean last week’s tequila) and in a week it can produce 35 gallons of ethanol that Quinn said any car can run on.[4] Quinn says the biggest breakthrough is the MicroFueler’s membrane distiller, which uses an extremely fine filter to separate water from alcohol at lower temperatures and in fewer steps than conventional methods. Using sugar as a feedstock makes the process virtually odorless, he says, and leaves the wastewater so clean you can drink it. It also avoids the food-for-fuel debate that plagues corn-based ethanol because we’re in the midst of a worldwide sugar glut.[1]
The MicroFueler has achieved an 80% power improvement over commercial ethanol manufacturers, thus raising the bar of the renewable fuel standard for carbon reduction. “Henry Ford started the automobile revolution using ethanol, predicting that this renewable and accessible fuel it would become the ‘fuel of the future,’” said Mr. Quinn. “If not for the Prohibition laws in the 1920s and the subsequent rise of the oil industry, ethanol may never have lost its public appeal. E-Fuel will deliver on Ford’s prediction, and enable consumers to bypass the costly oil infrastructure and their reliance on fossil fuels,” said Mr. Quinn.[8]
In a press event at Revel, a Meatpacking District restaurant that features a greenhouse-like roof and trees growing inside, Quinn and his fellow executives unveiled the EFuel100 MicroFueler. It looks like a cross between a gas pump and an old-fashioned refrigerator, it’ll cost $9,995, and it’ll be available for customers in the fourth quarter of 2008 (if all goes well). What is it, exactly? It’s a home ethanol refinery.[4] E-Fuel Corp., a recent start-up in the U.S. funded by a computer games inventor, unveiled yesterday the “MicroFueler”, a $5,000 portable machine that allows people to make their own ethanol.[11]
The MicroFueler sells for just under $10,000 and the sugar for a gallon of ethanol will run between $2 and $2.40. It weighs 200 pounds and can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol per week.[10] The sugar is where the math could break down - it currently sells for about 20 cents a pound in the United States, and you need 10 to 14 pounds of it to make a gallon of ethanol.[1]
I thought we would have learned something from the latest headlines about using food for fuel. Sure it sounds good on paper until you multiply 100 pounds of sugar by 30 Mil people every time they want a full tank of ethanol.[5] Some have connected rising food prices to the fact that corn-based ethanol means crops are going toward fuel rather than human consumption, and some reports have claimed that ethanol’s carbon footprint isn’t as “green” as it appears. E-Fuel’s executives have attempted to counter this rumor by saying that its sugar-based ethanol won’t hurt food prices because sugar is a surplus crop, and that sugar ethanol is inherently more efficient than corn. It’s safe to make at home, because no combustion is involved.[4] The use of sugar takes the dependence of ethanol off corn, which has led to rising prices of food ”’ or so certain quarters claim.[12]
As Bruce Padula, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing puts it, “Doctors aren’t telling you to eat more sugar.” Much of the ethanol-producing infrastructure in place is designed to use corn feedstock–corn-based ethanol accounts for most of the total ethanol produced in the U.S. at this time, according to Louisiana State University’s Agriculture Center.[2]
With gas prices going through the roof and everyone worried about global warming, a California company is betting people will jump at the chance to use the same technology to turn sugar into fuel for less than a buck a gallon.[1] I’d buy one simply due to our family having 3 vehicles running and at the soon to be $4 a gallon price tag on gasoline. it would be worth the original cost in the long run. I’m pleased to see they factored in unedible sugar. Hmmm. maybe I should plant sugarcane? My husband drove a flex fuel vehicle for the last 3 days on his job, but didn’t know where you’d get the fuel.[1] As for fuel, a means of producing sugar far more efficiently (in terms of land use, energy efficiency and cost that is) than current agricultural methods would be needed. It would preferably be a method that could be done close to markets - using energy from other sources (renewable, nuclear etc.) to drive chemical reactions might be conceivable but it might just be easier to design better electric cars. I also doubt this “invention” will do any good.[5] I am very much for alternative energy, however trying to move to sources that use the food we eat is insane in a world where food costs have already begun rising out of reach of the people that need to eat it to survive. Look into options such as algae or any of the many other options and leave food crops out of it.[1]
Previously, distilling ethanol has required large pieces of equipment and questionable efficiency. E-Fuel says that it has developed technology such as a new membrane distiller that can separate water from alcohol at lower temperatures than in conventional ethanol refining, reducing cost and complexity. The machine can fill its 35-gallon tank through fermentation in about a week, it doesn’t produce odors, and the water byproduct is potable. [5] E-Fuel says the machine is more efficient than industrial-scale ethanol plants because it removes water from the fuel with fine filters that reduce the fuel costs of distilling the water out.[11]
Calling itself the world’s first home-sized fuel alcohol plant, the MicroFueler machine has a pump handle for filling whatever uses the ethanol.[10] Why isn’t America rallied for, well, America.
Reply to this comment by SmokinWrek May 8, 2008 8:40 PM PDT Does this mean that if I use this, I’ll have a worm in the bottom of my tank?
Reply to this comment by WineMaker5000 May 8, 2008 8:43 PM PDT Those of us with passion for wine making, it takes on the average, the equivalent of 17 lbs of sugar to make the equivalent of 1 gallon of pure ethanol. This is based on actual measurement of average normal fermentation, and not theoretical calculations. Yeasts and other microorganisms will consume part of the sugar and not turn them into alcohol.[4]
On the plus side your engine also runs a bit cooler, which has led to anecdotal claims of parts like turbos lasting longer. Think of it like this;If you would have burned 4 gallons of petro gas you would need to use 5 gallons of ethanol. You would spend $20 for the gas, or $5 for the ethanol. this makes it worth it to me. [1]
For the older cars like my 99 with electronic ignition, you have to get a kit to modify the electronics, the sensors, or the injectors. They cant adjust quite as much as the new ones since they were only designed with ethanol in mind as a gas supplement not the overall fuel.[1] An increasing number of cars are running on ethanol to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, and a US-based company called the E-Fuel Corporation has unveiled a product that will let you make 100% ethanol.[12]
Complete details on pricing, availability, the E-Fuel Carbon Credit Program and local workshops can be found at www.efuel100.com. The E-Fuel Corporation was founded in March 2007 by Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield to create efficient micro ethanol refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil. As chairman of E-Fuel, a privately held company, Quinn has solely funded the company and is instrumental in both corporate leadership and product development.[8]
Quinn is not some moonshiner trying to make a quick buck on the alt-fuel craze. He’s a longtime entrepreneur who patented the motion-control technology Nintendo uses in the Wii. His partner in the E-Fuel venture is Floyd Butterfield, who has been distilling ethanol for more than 25 years and in 1982 won a California Department of Food and Agriculture contest for best design of an ethanol still. They say they’ve overcome many of the hurdles to making ethanol at home cheaply, easily and efficiently.[1]
NEW YORK–”Henry Ford had it right all along,” E-Fuel founder and CEO Thomas Quinn declared, referring to the fact that many original Model T Ford automobiles ran on the ethanol, not gasoline. That was before the era of Prohibition, which banned production of the biofuel along with other forms of alcohol. Now, he hopes ethanol can have a real revival.[4] To brew ethanol at home, property owners in the U.S. must obtain permits from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Currently, however, it’s illegal in the U.S. to run a conventional vehicle on 100% ethanol - but E-Fuel is hoping that regulators will certify all-ethanol cars if their system becomes popular.[5] MICROFUELER: E-Fuel Corp.’ s EFuel100 MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol a week that consumers can pump directly into their cars and trucks.[2] The MicroFueler produces ethanol that can be used in any car converted for flex fuels.[10]
The product will be sold in the U.S. for $9,995 from fourth quarter 2008. It will also be distributed in China and Brazil. Despite the fact that ethanol produces 85 per cent less carbon emissions than burning fossil fuels, biofuels such as ethanol have come under fire from environmentalists and economists recently because of the environmental and economic damage caused by diverting agricultural land to growing grain for ethanol production. Private production of ethanol would alleviate some of these issues.[7] Really no advantage over oil. 4) Fermentation stinks. It produces all sorts of nasty smells and toxic byproducts. Everyone hates it when an ethanol plant is built in their town because of the smell. It includes a waste port and two vents. 5) I would worry about the safety of having a large tank of volatile fuel sitting around. What if it gets a leak, catches on fire, or tips over? Reply to this comment by maxwell2755 May 9, 2008 11:22 AM PDT Nice idea.[4] Not only is sugar easily processed from it, but the sugar cane plant fibers is a good source of fuel for precessing the sugar. It is that easy. Large ethanol refining plants DO make it more efficiently than this product. All this does it to make ethanol the exact same way moonshiners have been making ethanol for hundreds of years.[1]
Jacobson last year published a report in Environmental Science & Technology noting that ethanol produces less benzene and butadiene than gasoline, but it releases more formaldehyde and acetaldehyde into the atmosphere. Although ethanol is made from seemingly innocuous materials (like sugar or corn), it becomes dangerous when broken down in the atmosphere into acetaldehyde and acetic acid (the latter of which is corrosive and irritates the eyes), Jacobson says[2]
Seriously though, I can appreciate this as a step in the right direction, but ethanol is really not a substitute for gasoline. I’m very wary of any solution that relies on either corn or sugar, because both of those industries seem to be beset with unethical environmental, business, and labor practices. My hope is that we can build on this technology.[1]
Ethanol producers use corn instead of sugar. It turns out that it is artificially expensive because of huge tariffs.[4]
The MicroFueler runs on electricity, and needs raw sugar (not table sugar), water, a time-release yeast mixture and a week to brew the ethanol.[12] The MicroFueler is a leading edge product that allows consumers to create ethanol, simply and safely, with the readily available ingredients of sugar, yeast and water, and a standard household 110-220 AC power supply.[8] The EFuel 100 MicroFueler will ferment the ethanol out of sugar, yeast and water in a few days of the ingredients being put into it.[12]
The MicroFueler uses sugar as the main fuel source, which is mixed with a time-release yeast the company has developed.[5] The company’s new machine available to consumers can convert sugar and leftover alcoholic drinks into fuel. The E-fuel Corporation rolled out its new MicroFueler Thursday.[10]
Quinn says changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement allows the importation of inedible or “ethanol-grade” sugar from Mexico for as little as 2.5 cents a pound and E-Fuel is creating a distribution network to sell it to consumers.
That same distribution network will deliver and install MicroFuelers when E-Fuel begins delivering them at the end of the year, he says.[1] How much sugar, and where from? I don’t see anything about it running on shit, garbage or grass clippings. Quinn says he wants to open distribution channels for cheap, inedible unrefined sugar from Mexico, which is about 2.5 cents per pound instead of 20. This would also be great for alaska, and any place where pollution control is a central concern. Electriciy is not that expensive. My family has been distilling our own water for years now. its maybe a few dollars for 10s of gallons of water. This wont be any more then that.[1] I’m with nano999, too many loose ends and hidden costs. I also seem to remember reading an article on the net in the past where they (state or federal government) shut a farmer down from making biofuel because he wasn’t paying “gas tax” on it to run his vehicles. Let me get this straight. you only save money if you get the sugar from Mexico, and it takes an average of 12 pounds per gallon.[5] USING YOUR MATH, 35 gallons of gas would be 20×35=$700 so yes sir you are an idiot. Sugar that is not edible goes for.14 cents down to.02 cents per pound! So in effect the both of you dipshits need to redo your math lessons and specifically work on word problems since that is your weak point.[1]
If it takes up to 14lbs (lets say 10) to make ONE gallon of gas then at 2.00 a pound for pure EDIBLE sugar it would be roughly $20 for just the sugar.[1]
Best price I found for bulk raw sugar was approx $75 for a 50lb sack. With shipping it’s going to be more like $100. That’s $2 per pound.[1] The firms says that a two-car family that drives about 34,500 miles a year, the MicroFueler will pay for itself in less than two years, assuming average gasoline prices of $3.60 per gallon.[11] The company estimates that burning a gallon of ethanol made by the MicroFueler will let off just 12% of the carbon that a gallon of gasoline emits.[5] The ethanol will have to be mixed with gasoline even for flex-fuel vehicles so the company recommends putting in a few gallons of regular gasoline and then topping off with the home-made brew.[6]
A company called E-Fuel Corporation has introduced EFuel100 MicroFueler”’ “the world”’s first home ethanol system.” [6] Tom Quinn, E-Fuel founder and chief executive, sees similarities between the MicroFueler and the PC. “Just as the PC brought desktop computing to the home, E-Fuel will bring the filling station to the home,” he said.[7] “E-Fuel will have a profound impact on the way we obtain and consume fuel, not unlike the paradigm shift that occurred in the 80s from the mainframe computer to the PC,” said Tom Quinn, E-Fuel Founder and CEO. “Just as the PC brought desktop computing to the home, E-Fuel will bring the filling station to the home.[8]
Quinn likens the MicroFueler to the personal computer and says it will cause the same sort of “paradigm shift.” “Just as the PC brought desktop computing to the home, E-Fuel will bring the filling station to the home,” he says.[1]
Corollary
Making ethanol at home is not as easy as Quinn might have you believe, says Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC-Berkeley. Making a lot of ethanol has generally required a lot of equipment, he told the New York Times, and quality control can be uneven. [1]
The home-brewed ethanol maker is the brain child of entrepreneur Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield. They unveiled the machine at a press event Thursday in New York.[6]
Throughout the press conference on Thursday, Quinn reiterated that there’s nothing unusual about making car fuel in your backyard. “We’re already in the ethanol business,” he explained, gesturing to the bar at the back of the restaurant, “but we’re using it as a beverage drink.”[4] Quinn says running sugar-based ethanol will produce about 85 percent fewer carbon emissions than using gasoline.[1] E-Fuel touts ethanol as cheaper and more environmentally sound than gasoline, claiming that it produces 85 percent fewer climate change-causing carbon emissions than gasoline.[2]
“Just like cigarette smoke, you’re breathing in particles that are harmful.” Criticism by Jacobson and others against this fuel that many hope will become an alternative to high-priced, foreign-sourced petroleum is an issue E-Fuel and other ethanol backers will have to address, no matter how much cheaper their product is.[2] E-Fuel creates ethanol micro refinery products that conform to U.S. safety and durability standards and include modern safety features.[8]
With more than 30 people employed in Los Gatos and Paso Robles, California and China, the employees of E-Fuel represent some of the top United States ethanol researchers and proven Silicon Valley professionals who draw upon diverse expertise in the ethanol, electronics, automotive and software industries.[8]
Idiot titles that are there just to get more people to click on the headlines. Tactics like this make me go elsewhere for my news. @MRK - Chaining a lot of these to make an ethanol plant has already been done.[1] I am not worried about this socialist/communist lie. This is only worthwhile in areas where sugar is grown locally, else they’d be an energy deficit. Alaska my eye! Also don’t forget that the heavy machines need to be transported too. It is GOOD to diversify to prepare for energy shortages (strikes, terrorism, new laws etc). It is GREAT for the hobbyist and the tinkerer who likes to learn new tricks, if they’ve got some cash.[1] “You just open it like a washing machine and dump in your sugar, close the door and push one button,” company founder Tom Quinn told us.[1] Quinn says the device, which is about the size of a refrigerator, is so simple to use that anyone can do it.
“You just open it like a washing machine and dump in your sugar, close the door and push one button,” he says.[6]
A version that uses corn is lower priority, Quinn said, because corn, unlike sugar, is an essential part of the world’s food supply.[2]
“Corn is food and gas, peanuts are amazing source of proteins since meat could be hard to come by.”
Diesel invented his engines to run on “bio-diesel”, more commonly known to him as PEANUT OIL. The stuff separates itself in the peanut butter jar!! petroleum diesel is the alternative fuel, bio-diesel was the original! No wonder he died mysteriously. I think this a great step in the right direction. This isn’t for everyone out there but I think there has to be a large niche group that this set up would be ideal.[1]
The fuel made from it is only cheaper than gas right now because there is a surplus left over from sugar produced when oil prices were much lower.[1]
I have a better idea, why not just follow the fuel truck, and catch the dribble that leaks from the fuel hose, it would be a whole lot easer, and cheaper. That’s ok but if people start making their on fuel using sugar. That will just run the price of sugar out of the roof.[1] More sugar means lower supplies of foodstuffs and higher prices, which ultimately leads to more poor people going hungry. You gotta know this whole thing is about enacting the socialist nirvana on earth.
Idea,drill our own oil,tell the church of earth they are a cult who values almost all thinks over people and get on with our lives. Hm,the last time they raised their heads in the U.S. WW2 came along and the all hid or changed their names.[1] For each 35 gallons someone has lug around 350-500 lbs of sugar, every time! After all that lifting I’d need a drink.[1]
Would be good to laugh at the gas prices, as well as the enviro-wackos that think I should carpool or ride a bike to work. I love it, and the more sources of energy and more this thing processes the better. I think we all need to become self reliant, and this could be a great way. I love it, and the more sources of energy and more this thing processes the better. I think we all need to become self reliant, and this could be a great way.[1]
I feel confident that making ethanol at home has no future, but making ethanol at the gas station does. [1] Just put a few gallons of gas in your car, then drive home and top it off with ethanol.[1] The capacity of this machine is 35 gallons a week. This is probably just enough to fuel two commuting cars for a week. I don’t think it’s worth the space at a gas station.[1] The MicroFueler, which is about the size of a gas station pump, will sell for $9,995 and start shipping late in 2008.[5] The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle — minus the slot for a credit card, or the digital “SALE” numbers that whir ever faster at retail pumps as global demand pushes fuel prices to record levels.[3]
For a mere $10,000 any consumer can now make and pump their own ethanol at home.[6]
Besides the $10,000 to buy the Micro-Fueler, a consumer will also need a permit from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to make ethanol legally.[6]
Want one? You’ll need a federal license to produce alcohol, of which ethanol fuel is a form.[9]
The process of turning sugar into ethanol fuel takes nearly a week (although alcohol distillation can be done in a matter of hours).[2]
The problem lies in the law because it is illegal to run a car on 100 percent ethanol. The conversion process happens when sugar or leftover cocktails — wine or beer — is poured into its fermentation tank through a grate-covered opening on the machine.[10] If 5-10% of travel usage is pick up by ethanol, 5-10% bio-diesel, 5-10% electric, suddenly we are making a dent in that oil usage, trading in the SUV for a more efficient vehicle, we can make an even bigger dent by car pooling to work, walking, cycling, not using plastic bags (buy re-useable canvas), recycling (especially plastics). This ethanol machine is just a start, but it is a start.[1]
Using the LCD screen located on the front of the device (next to the pump), the operator places the EFuel100 either in ferment (for feedstock) or distillation (for liquor) mode to begin the process. The EFuel100 is hooked up to a water source–much like one’s washing machine or dishwasher is–and regulates the amount of water flowing into its tank to begin the ethanol-conversion process. Once the feedstock is fermented, the device transfers the solution to its distillation system, where it is vaporized in a vertical column tube and sent through a membrane that separates the alcohol from the water.[2]
Alcohol left over from Saturday night”’s party can also contribute positively ”’ but no word on whether country liquor works yet. The MicroFueler has its own pump and hose as well, so can fill up your car”’s tank just like at the local petrol pump.[12] After fermentation and processing, the MicroFueler can hook up to a car and fill it just like a gas pump.[9]
How would you like to have your own gas pump at home? A Los Gatos entrepreneur is launching a corporation that could make a big impact on the fuel industry.[10]
As ethanol has a lower BTU than gasoline, one’s fuel mileage will be lower with ethanol than with gas.[1] Maybe instead of going after ethanol we should free up feed grain for fuel and instead graze cattle on land that is inefficient to farm. I’d actually love to get one of these. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out when they actually ship.
I’ve converted my gas tractors to ethanol (They were originally designed for leaded fuel and they actually run better on the ethanol then they did on unleaded fuel).[1]
Making it big isn’t hard, making it small and economical is - that’s why all fuel ethanol is made in big plants.[1] “Lets forget ethanol, get the m/c and stay home and get drunk; Three crops a year of hemp will solve all our problems and I defy all science to say it[2] People were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it moonshine.[1] To transport ethanol you either need to truck it (very inefficient), or carry it by rail car (only slightly better).[1] Just about any car newer then 1999 will be able to take the ethanol straight with no modifications.[1]
“Did SciAm run the numbers on this before publishing it? At 30cents/lb of feedstock and 14 lbs/gallon of ethanol, it would cost $4.20 to produce a[2] The EFuel 100 MicroFueler will cost a hefty U.S. $10,000, but high-mileage users will definitely find it a sound investment.[12] For U.S. buyers there are several local and national rebates available, and more importantly, E-Fuel will be introducing a Carbon Credit Program to offset costs and assist in reducing carbon emissions.[8]
It’ll cost $9,995, but executives hinted that carbon tax credits on the state and federal level may help subsidize the price.[9]
I would have to disagree with the idea that sugar would skyrocket like corn has. The main reason is the number of people that could buy this, should buy this and actually would buy this device would most likely not be large enough to influence the price. Like I stated before, this is just one of MANY ways we should be attacking the oil/pollution issues.
This device wont be for everyone.[1] Instead every election we have 2-3 overpaid, out of touch, agenda whores, with little more intelligence than the ability to manipulate people. Who will make this country better? Nobody thats running today or even in the last 2 elections. Hell the very mention of congress is a joke, the same for lawyers, etc. This has always sickened me, knowing that the people who should care do not, the people with power use it to get more power/money, if someone does try to do good they are shunned, the courts throw men away for entire lifetimes for petty reasons, police spend more time fleecing the public for “revenue” than helping to improve peoples lives, entire bills are passed in lieu of them being environmentally friendly but because or constant wording loopholes they are actually a way for a mega-corp to destroy the environment, tax break that appear to help the fellow man but in reality only help the richest 1%, the president (aka oil baron) smiles when the oil price rises, his father and friends make millions for every cent and its the first time in his life he is doing something his father approves of.[1] At the same time poverty is spreading into the middle/upper class, oil companies are recording record profits into the billions. Cause/Effect Oil is more expensive because they say it is, not because it is. Still $2 a barrel to suck from american soil and $4 a barrel in another country. $128 a barrel + Import tax + State Gas Tax= raping the people of their last dollar to bring us to the brink of an economical breakdown to see exactly what we can handle.[1]
Oil is turned into fertilizer, the sugar cane converts it into sugar, the still converts it back into liquid fuel. [1] I can get an awful lot of sugar and tequila to fuel MYSELF for ten grand.
Reply to this comment by strategynode May 8, 2008 7:46 PM PDT I think of how America responded during World War II to the call to recycle and save for the war effort - specifically, the women would save their cooking oil in a tin, then take it to the local butcher who would pay her a nominal fee. This grease in turn would be used by the military for making bombs, if I’m not mistaken.[4]
Do you really want to be “importing” all that sugar, investing in the “fueller” and then making make the “booze” fuel.[5] Planting sugar still requires the finite land, water and fertilizer resources required by all producers.[1]
Sugar, Yeast, and Water? I think I would rather make beer out of it. I’d rather be numb as the world slips deeper into the filthy asshole it’s been stroking for the past 150 years. Think, do you live in a goddamn cave, or is this just a little overexposure to the drudge report/oreilly factor/other radical neoconservative media source.[1]
To make ethanol in the EFuel100, feedstock (consisting of sugar and yeast) or discarded liquor is loaded into the device’s 200-gallon (757-liter) tank.[2] Ultimately ethanol is bogus. Do we really want vast fields of sugar cane, and sugar refining plants, out there squeezing out fields of food? NOPE. This makes sense only to yuppies.[1]
Why not just use this ethanol distilling technology to build the most efficient sized still, then chain lots of them together and call it an ethanol plant? Having one centralized place to create ethanol is bound to be cheaper than everyone having their own MicroFueler.[1] MRK: One of the big problems with Ethanol is that it tends to absorb water. This prevents it from being able to use gasoline pipelines and this fact alters the economics of transporting the stuff.[1] Ethanol, unlike Gasoline or diesel, cannot be pumped through existing pipelines because it will absorb too much water.[1]
Ethanol has about 27% less energy than gasoline, but good luck making your own gasoline.[1] Small businesses and even private citizens could soon be producing their own ethanol for vehicles, thanks to a Californian company which has developed a miniaturised ethanol production unit.[7]
Anyone in the U.S. can obtain a license to produce alcohol, ethanol included.[4] The increased weight of the water makes it more expensive to ship. It is used to produce rum because of theextra flavours in molasses. 3) America does not and cannot economically produce sugar.[4] The sugar or alcohol is mixed with a measured amount of water already in the tank and the conversion process begins.[10]
Everyone does realize that the cane sugar you are buying in the supermarket for around $2 is a 5 lb bag, so if you are paying $2 for that = $.40/lb. Uh, can the refined sugar in those 5 lb bags be used by this machine? The article states it uses raw sugar.[1] The founder sasy “You just open it like a washing machine and dump in your sugar”.[1]
A gas station has the resources to buy the equipment and raw materials plus someone to operate it correctly. If it could recycle its own waste water this could work. [1] MicroFueler owners load up the device with yeast and sugar “feedstock,” a variety of sugar not intended for human consumption.[9]
SOURCES
1. Make Fuel at Home With Portable DIY Refinery | Autopia from Wired.com
2. Are Backyard Ethanol Brewers an Answer to High-Priced Gas?: Scientific American
3. Kick the oil habit and make your own ethanol | Science & Health | Reuters
4. For $9,995, your car could run on sugar and tequila | Green Tech - CNET News.com
5. Make Ethanol in Your Own Backyard
6. Domestic Fuel » Archives » Make it Yourself Ethanol
7. Ethanol production goes small-scale - 09 May 2008 - BusinessGreen
8. E-Fuel Unveils World’s First Home Ethanol System
9. Images: How to make your car run on tequila (sort of) | CNET News.com
10. Leftover Booze Fuels Los Gatos Company - News Story - KNTV | San Francisco
11. US firm unveils ‘MicroFueler’ home ethanol kit - News - Auto Industry
12. Brew your own fuel ”’ at home! » CarWale.com Blog