Posted on 05/09/2008 8:35:13 AM PDT by 300magnum
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.
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.
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.
Regular table sugar alone is too expensive, so E-Fuels says it will link customers to cheaper surplus supplies, including inedible sugar from Mexico that sells at a fraction of the price. 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 corn.
"We will break the traditional ethanol system," said Quinn a California computer and computer games inventor, who has bankrolled the company with what he calls "millions, but not multimillion" of dollars.
He said despite the steep upfront costs, the machines will pay for themselves quickly. For 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, the company said. The unit makes up to 35 gallons (132 liters) of 100 percent ethanol per week.
Others are not so sure that the MicroFueler is a good investment.
"I doubt it will work," said David Pimental, a professor at Cornell University who has studied the economics of ethanol for decades. He said the history of the fuel has been one of moving to greater and greater scales to increase the efficiencies of making the fuel.
E-Fuel says the machine is efficient in a way that big ethanol plants aren't because it removes water from the fuel with special fine filters that reduce the fuel costs of distilling the water out.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Marguerita Choy)
They don't but they come about as close as you can get for a system that has to be periodically refueled. In 2007 the US nuclear fleet averaged 91.8% capacity factor.
Windies like to point out that you don't need to "refuel" windmills. But, in a sense, you do. They don't run when the wind isn't blowing, and sometimes they don't run when it is. Average capacity factor for wind installations is about 25%. That essentially turns 1000 MW of capacity into 250 MW of supply. Comparably, for a nuclear unit in 2007, 1000 MW in capacity equaled 918 MW of supply.
If you're in the power dispatching business (which I have been in a previous life), you often talk about energy sources in terms of "quality". Capacity like solar and wind are generally regarded as low quality, because it isn't dispatchable (i.e., it may not be there when you call upon it). Nuclear capacity is considered high quality, because, most of the time, you can load it into your system when you need it.
And by the way, this will have ZERO or NEGATIVE impact on “carbon emissions” (which doesn’t matter anyway, I know, but THEY think it’s important and THEY are too stupid to see that this does nothing to alleviate that concern of THEIRS).
Let's say a "l'chaim" and drink to it!
If you haven’t tried you don’t know. State law varies quite a bit but when all is said done it’s the taxes they want to secure. If the gov. is certain on that the rest amounts to paper work.
Every day for the past week I have felt like its 'groundhog day' as the news squawwwwwwks about the new record high gas prices and 'what are we gonna doooooooo?????'
All the while local gobmint [in Louisville] was just reported to have been spending $6/gal for WATER...ya know the stuff that covers 2/3 of the planet ???
I forget the total $$$ of tax wasted on this while squeelin about lack of funds for roads & bridges, but it was a LARGE number...
Socialists, [I will no longer use the term liberals]and the lazy ,do everything for 'me' sheep that follow them, are killing this country...aint gettin better til it gets MUCH worse...
Please anyone, correct if wrong on this. I believe it is sugar cane that is the main source for ethanol. Not sure where this is grown in the US.
It’s a Federal Matter not state, hence the BATF&E will be your Overlord.
To get 3.5 gallons a week of something that most vehicles won't burn by itself?
Here is something I found on a Dept. of Energy website.
Ethanol is a clear, colorless alcohol fuel made from the sugars found in grains, such as corn, sorghum, and wheat, as well as potato skins, rice, and yard clippings. Ethanol is a renewable fuel because it is made from plants. There are several ways to make ethanol from biomass. The most commonly used processes today use yeast to ferment the sugars and starch in corn. Corn is the main ingredient for ethanol in the United States due to its abundance and low price. Most ethanol is produced in the corn-growing states in the Midwest. The starch in the corn is fermented into sugar, which is then fermented into alcohol. Other crops such as, barley, wheat, rice, sorghum, sunflower, potatoes, sugar cane and sugar beets can also be used to produce ethanol.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/ethanol.html
That would be the Bureau of FATE (Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives).
It's F.A.T.E. I tell you.
This is probably more specific answer.
The U.S. corn market will continue to be dominated by ethanol production in the coming year. Ethanol corn use for 2008/09 is projected to increase 28 percent and account for 31 percent of total corn use as ethanol production capacity continues the unprecedented expansion begun in 2006.
PROSPECTS FOR THE U.S. FARM ECONOMY IN 2008
Joseph Glauber, Chief Economist,USDA
http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/2008Speeches/PDFSpeeches/Glauber.pdf
Ethanol Production Continues to Drive Corn Market
Nay not so, Weedhopper. Hootch for the Hybrid must allow the state to take a sip before passing the jug along to Ali Kahall, the Fed.Xtra tax man.
But only with moderation and respect.
Just the act of distilling involves the BATF.............&E, even if for only Off Road use.
Let me get this straight: you spend $10,000 for a device that makes ethanol for a net econonic benefit of (at most) $4.00 gallon for fuel or $20.00 gallon as corn squeezin’. HMMM...tough choice.
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