MicroFueler Makes $1/gal Homebrew Ethanol From Sugar
Homemade ethanol guru Floyd S. Butterfield and Silicon Valley entrepreneur and innovator Thomas J. Quinn want to see you making ethanol in your backyard. Their creation, called the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler, is a stacked washer-dryer sized reactor that can convert sugar into ethanol for (they claim) $1.00 per gallon.
Before you get too excited, please note that the unit is probably too expensive for your next block party, unless you’ve got an extra $9,995 lying around somewhere. Fortunately, state and Federal tax credits can halve this, but that still keeps it out of the price range of the average American.
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How could making ethanol be so expensive? As Thomas Quinn quipped, this is “third-grade science. You just mix together water, sugar and yeast, and in a few hours, you start getting ethanol.” That’s not the hard part; what’s difficult is purifying ethanol to the degree that it can be mixed successfully with gasoline.
Ethanol has been made from yeast-fermentation of grain, fruits, and vegetables for thousands of years. Distillation, which gets around the 15% alcohol concentration limit that kills yeast, followed shortly thereafter. Adding ethanol to motor fuel takes things one step further. To mix properly with gasoline, ethanol must be anhydrous (containing no water) at 100% pure, or 200-proof. Homemade ethanol stills can easily produce 95% pure, or 190-proof, ethanol. But getting that last 5% of water out of the ethanol can require just as much energy as it did to get out the first 95%.
It could be the ingenuity of putting several thousand years of knowledge into one box makes the MicroFueler so costly. It can fill its own 35-gallon tank with E100 (100% ethanol) in about a week by fermenting the sugar, water and yeast internally, then separating out the water through a membrane filter.
Compared to homebrewing biodiesel, which can be done with less than $100 worth of equipment, making ethanol for motor fuel seems complicated and expensive. While sugar appears to be a cheap, ubiquitous resource, according to one expert it takes 10 to 14 pounds of sugar to make a gallon of ethanol. Right now, raw sugar sells in the United States for about 20 cents a pound.
Although the cost of each gallon of ethanol produced in the MicroFueler depends on the price of sugar, electricity, and water, Thomas Quinn maintains that it can be made for somewhere around $1 per gallon. The company is trying to make inedible sugar available from Mexico, which can be bought for as little as 2.5 cents per pound.
I like the idea, but this probably isn’t something that will go mainstream unless the price comes down. If you want more information about homebrewing ethanol, or plans to make your own still (which would be substantially cheaper), see these resources:
Posts Related to Ethanol and Biodiesel:
- Study: Your Car Can Run On 20% Ethanol
- 6 Ways To Find And Use Biodiesel Anywhere
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- Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production
Via: NYT
Photo Credit: Popular Mechanics
I have seen lots of ideal’s.
We need some thing fast, cost effective,.. at the punp today! not 5-50 years down the road.
If this were directly an enemy like ww2 we would have
already done it. Our ecconomy needs this now!
I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND CHEAP NON-CONSUMEABLE SUGAR WITH NO LUCK. THE CHEAPEST SUGAR I AM ABLE TO FIND IS AT SAMS CLUB FOR 40CENTS PER POUND AND WITH 12 TO 14 POUNDS OF SUGAR TO MAKE 1 GALLON OF ETHANOL THE COST IS AROUND $5.00 PER GALLON.
[...] Nevada Brewing Company and E-Fuel Corp have joined forces to create a high-grade, inexpensive ethanol [...]
The truth of the matter is that it does not matter that the world is getting warmer we will loose our glaciers and have an increase in ocean levels, but there will be no catastrophe, people migrate adapt and evolve, with human thought will come an answer for reducing fossil fuel usage only time will tell, if it was possible to create ethanol for a dollar it would be done. And who is to say they know exactly how they are effeting the world, with higher carbon emissions from vehicles comes better photosynthesis, everything has ups and downs plus’s and minus’s we are ridding out an ice age, I sure as hell glad that we are warming up, cause i don’t like being cold like polar bears or whales.
I am part of the team that has designed the E-Fuel MicroFueler. The technology the MicroFuler uses is very efficient and fairly quick. The issue with feedstock (sugar) is potentially an issue (partially in thanks to our government’s Ag policies, but that is really our fault for letting them do as they have, but we live in the usa so we can change policies as needed, yeah us!). There are other sources of feedstock and different types of microbes that are potentially much stronger candidates than those that only change uneatable sugar stock into beer. The MicroFueler is controlled by a computer, giving it a big advantage over the typical home based destiller because of the high tech system controlling the whole process. This isn’t your grandpa’s moonshine operation. Just go to http://www.microfueler.com, and read through.
As for the issue with current automobiles having issues with E85, well, there may some truth to that. In reality, engines and materials can be optimized, just look at F1 race cars, they run exclusively on alcohol based fuel because it is cleaner, burns at a lower temperature and so is easier on the engine.
IIRC, there is an engine design company called Ricardo that claims to have created an engine that gets diesel performance (mpg and torque) while burning ethanol as a fuel. If those claims are true, then we all need to start looking at just alcohol as a strong contender to power our economy.
We, as a society, have adapted from horses to cars, now we must consider only a much smaller investment, to simply change engine tech and fuel type, which is much easier.
Right now our economy is based on a system of financial exploitation and war. We do not have free markets and we do not have fair competition in the markets. Corporations are money making machines who’s sole purpose is to feed off of our socialized infrastructure while destroying the environment.
Corporations want to privatize their profits and socialize their loses. Corporations
have no soul but they are afforded the same legal rights as individuals who live forever.
Remember all of those futuristic science fiction movies about machines that
take over the world and destroy mankind. Well guess what, we are there. Right now gasoline cost around $3:00 per gallon at the pump and another $2.50 per gallon in subsidizes to the oil companies. So every time we drive our cars we are really spending over $5 a gallon. If we all had to pay over $5 a gallon for gasoline at the pump, things would change very quickly.
But if you figure in the fact that the 850 military bases we have scattered
around the globe are primarily there to protect the profits of transnational
corporations, and you factor in the cost of cleaning up global warming and
other types of ground and air pollution, and you figure in the cost of the
war in Iraq, than the real cost of taking your kids to soccer is another
$10.00 per gallon of gasoline of subsidized deficit spending that our kids will have to
pay back with interest, pay back in inflation and in some cases pay back with their lives. I am the curator of the Crosses of Lafayette Afghanistan and Iraq War Memorial so I meet many veterans and Gold Star Parents who have lost their friends and family in our endless war for oil.
Clearly the alternative is to invest in sustainable infrastructure. An
investment in sustainable infrastructure means an investment that pays us
back over and over and over.
Applying the principals of permaculture is our only hope for creating a sustainable infrastructure.
Take the example of sewage. We all have it, nobody likes it, so what do we do with it? It turns out that cattails love sewage. In fact cattails love sewage so much that
when you run sewage through a field of cattails, the end result is clean
water.
Not only that but cattails can produce 7,500 gals of ethanol fuel per acre.
It would only take 1.5% of our marginal farm land to produce enough ethanol
to power all of our transportation needs in the United States.
If we all installed flex fuel devises in our automobiles and started using
ethanol instead of gasoline, air pollution would be reduced by 98%. Our car
engines would last three times longer so we would not have to go into debt
buying a hybrid. CO2 emissions would be cut in half. And for every pound
of co2 that goes into the atmosphere when using ethanol 2 ½ times that much
co2 is sequestered by the roots and stalks of plants that are recycled into
organic compost to make more top soil. Another vital resource we are quickly
depleting.
So what’s the hang up? The hang up is that the department of energy
estimates that switching to ethanol would create 26 million new jobs that
can not be exported overseas. That means no obscene profits for
the CEOs of transnational corporations. War profiteers don’t like that because there are
no terrorist who are going to attack fields of cattails fertilized with
sewage.
Another potential source of ethanol fuel is kelp. Off the California coast
line we could grow enough kelp to power 1/3rd of the cars, trucks and
bus’s in the entire United States. I also doubt terrorist would want to invade our coastlines full of kelp.
Many areas of the ocean no longer support fish and plant life due to the high level of nitrogen content in the secondary sewage run off from factory farms. Kelp would be a way to restore the oceans and bring them back to life by increasing the level of oxygen..
Kombu sea weed grown in Japan is a major part of my vegan diet. It can grow 18″ per day when properly fertilized. Wild Kombu from the Mendocino coast cost six times more than Kombu from Japan. I am not a purest when it comes to terra-forming the earth. I think we need to use the principals of permaculture and science to grow enough food to feed everyone on the planet. But we need to do it in a way that will help the environment and in a way that redistributes the wealth by creating jobs for the maximum number of people. Otherwise we will become a prison planet where democracy is a thing of the past. The people of the United States should not be sending $500 billion dollars a year to dictators in the Middle East and South America.
Several weeks ago our governor in California was in a press conference advocating for a new gismo called the E100 Micro-fuelers as one of many solutions to our energy problems in California. The E100 allows average people to make their own ethanol at home for around $1 a gallon. But he forgot to mention that it is against the law to buy and install a flex fuel device in California because back in the 80s when lots of people where converting their autos to natural gas some of the flex fuel devices did not work very well. So the gas companies made it illegal to install flex fuel devices in California even though they are being installed all over the United States.
The California EPA says it will take a long time for them to change the rules about flex fuel devices. Meaning they don’t give a damn because cleaning up the environment is not their gig.
I am involved in a 7 billion dollar law suit against the EPA because they will not let us recycle 100 million dollars of minerals out of 500,000 tons of sludge they have been piled up on top of Iron Mountain near Redding California as part of their so called clean up of Iron Mountain. .
Many of the minerals that can be recycled from the high density sludge dam on Iron Mountain are being imported from China. Many of the minerals could be used to make solar panels and advanced electric car batteries. Many of the minerals can be used as catalyst to convert cellulosic materials such as lawn clippings, waste paper and wood chips into ethanol.
This is just another example of how the so called protection of the environment has become a religion instead of a science. The Taliban in Afghanistan are making billions off the Heroin drug trade while shrouding themselves in the cloak of God. Huge companies like AIG are ripping off billions from the US tax payers while wrapping themselves in the cloak of environmentalism. AIG is one of the main benefactors in continuing to pile up sludge on Iron Mountain for the next 3000 years instead of recycling the sludge into useful products.
The only way we are going to stop big money corporations from owning our legislators and destroying our jobs and environment is to make an end run around their evil plans to dominate us all. Switching to ethanol is the best way I can think of to create a positive change on all levels. It is something we can all participate in and for a very little investment.
Jeff Heaton of Lafayette California.
I recently was invited on board with DeAnza Fuel Group, who is working with E-Fuel in the Midwest. If you watch the video on http://www.microfueler.com, you will hear Tom Quinn Mention us at the end of his speech. We are responsible for finding and setting up the initial dealers and distributors of the MicroFueler launch, from Wisconsin and Michigan all the way down to Florida. It is a huge territory.
As Team America noted above, there are multiple sources of feedstock from which ethanol can be made. It is incorrect to think you have to go buy a bunch of sugar at the grocery store. We are exploring our options and pursuing relationships with businesses and other entities that can provide the organic waste we will use in our distribution networks, which I will explain. Think breweries, bottling companies, vineyards, soft drink companies, just to name a few beverages, let alone foods, waste, crops, and more.
Many people are baffled by the claim of $1/gallon E100, so let me explain how the MicroFuelers will be offered. When purchased from the dealer, your unit will have two options of service.
1. Self-serve. You find your own sources of feedstock/organic waste. You dispose of your waste materials. Your unit is maintained by the dealer through the GPS network. Estimate: 10-25 cents/gallon.
2. Full-service. We will utilize a network of recycling centers and dealers. The centers will secure vast amounts of feedstock and will accomplish half of the fermentation and distillery process in-house (easier for the customer, and more than doubles the daily production in gallons of the unit). The dealers will deliver the organic material to the individual units, and remove the waste materials, when notified of the need by the unit itself through the GPS network. The customer will pay a certain price per gallon to the dealer for every gallon pumped from the unit. As explained on the website, E-Fuel’s participation in the carbon credit program, among other incentives and things we are working on, will allow them to discount the price per gallon, resulting in an estimated $1/gallon.
Let me add an important note that I forgot.
The cost of the unit, plus installation, is eligible for a 50% tax credit.
$10,000 = $5,000
Ethanol from waste or other unused things is not alcohol for food.
Example:
1 acre of corn can produce 350 gal of alcohol.
1 acre of Cattails can produce 7,000 gal of alcohol so who would use corn except cattle feed corn (to take the starch out thus making it better feed for cows that can not digest starch)…???…
There are 140,000 sq miles of wild UNUSED Cattails growing in the USA and that comes out to 9 BILLION gal of alcohol per yr and takes NO FOOD away from anyone.
Grass clippings can even be used… lots of things we throw away can save our planet and thus our kids futures IF we want to use them…
PS:
I only used 5,000 gal of alcohol per acre of Cattails vs the 7,000 gal per acre you can get with several harvests per yr.