Shaquille O’Neal Helps to Debut the World’s First E-Fuel MicroFueler
Who needs a gas station to fill your tank with ethanol? Not you. GreenHouse has just announced the E-Fuel MicroFueler, a portable in-home micro-refinery system that turns organic waste into ethanol. The first installation of the E-Fuel MicroFueler was in the home of none other than basketball great Shaquille O’Neal, who lives in Pacific Palisades a subdivision in LA.
The E-Fuel MicroFueler coverts the organic waste into ethanol for about two-thirds the cost of gasoline. The final product is E100 (100 percent ethanol) which burns cleaner emitting significantly less emissions into the air. The only vehicles designed to run on E100 are the IndyCars which in 2007 became the first motorsports league to sanction a renewable fuel.
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So how does it work? The size of an appliance, it produces the ethanol by converting carbohydrate waste products into sugar. You can use spent beer yeast, algae and non-food based cellulose feedstocks. Once the conversion to ethanol is complete, the system pumps it directly into your car while your car is sitting in the driveway. Not sure where to get your raw material to produce ethanol? No worries. The GreenHouse team delivers raw material and maintains the home-based unit as part of its service package. Whew. And I thought I was going to have to start brewing beer at home to get the bi-products I needed to make ethanol.
For people afraid that it is too “toxic” for your home, GreenHouse claims it is completely safe to produce and pump at home and the only bi-product in distilled water.
It should be noted that O’Neal is an investor in GreenHouse. “Once I saw the GreenHouse business plan, I was committed to GreenHouse and the E-Fuel solution,” he said.
Now, let’s take a moment to reflect on producing E100. In the states, it is not a legal fuel nor are there any cars that can run on E100 (unless you converted your car yourself). The closest you get is a flex fuel vehicle which can run on E85, straight gasoline or any blend in between. So I wonder what vehicle you are to put the fuel in….
Greenhouse’s mission is to bring green technology to peoples’ home and to businesses and is the exclusive distributor of the MicroFueler in Southern California and Arizona.The company is gearing up for commercial distribution by the end of 2009 and is already taking orders.
“With the launch of the first operational MicroFueler in Los Angeles, GreenHouse is making consumer-use of E-Fuel 100 an option for people who want to gain control over vehicle fuel costs and take active steps towards improving the environment,” said GreenHouse CEO, Chris Ursitti.
GreenHoue has partnered with notable companies including Karl Strauss Brewing Company, Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, and Sunny Delight to convert 29,000 tons of liquid waste into fuel using the MicroFueler process.
In a nutshell, this process turns beer into fuel. So now what am I going to drink when I watch the Laker’s game?
if this micro fuel can really make ethanol from cellulose feedstocks it sell well. At least every farmer will want one
The comment “The only vehicles designed to run on E100 are the IndyCars which in 2007 became the first motorsports league to sanction a renewable fuel.” is at best misleading. Prior to changing to ethanol, the Indy cars ran on methanol. C H3 OH rather than C2 H5 OH. Both fuels have the same fire problem. You can not see the flames in a bright sunlit area. They also have the same advantage. You can put the fire out with water.
Can we use food scraps and grass clippings?
Does Greenhouse pay the motor fuel tax? Would this cut in to how much alcohol I can make for personal consumption since it isn’t denatured?
Most vehicles can run with > 10% ethanol. If the savings were sufficient, it would be simple to fill up at the petrol station, leaving room for a gallon or so, then topping all the way with ethanol. The ethanol content would rise to 15% or there abouts depending on tank size.
Seems like this really isn’t for the consumer - maybe for a small company that makes food products and has a suitable sugary waste stream? And there do seem to be some very valid questions about what kind of fuel you actually end up with in your car’s tank? Seems like you would really want to have a FlexFuel car or truck that can handle E10 - E85 blends, and it wouldn’t be hard to ‘blend’ that yourself. But it also seems that it will take a couple of years of ‘testimonials’ from users before something like this is shown to be useful / viable. Has California bought any of these to evaluate, or DoE? Some neutral 3rd party needs to examine this technology and let us all know if it’s real or not.
I’d love a choice at the pumps but most stations have a hard enough time keeping Gas and diesel, here in Japan they include Kerosene. If they can include kerosene why not include biofuels from integrating different types of coops; Maybe have this Natl. Coop for the insurance industry sponsor an alt. fuel coop to provide income for the R&D of a new line of energy coops that raise the quality of life for not just a few of the coops ‘elite’ corp types but improve the flow of our resources.
HS programs and Tech. Colleges could enroll teachers, students and retired genius’ to work and divide profits as they develop new patents and products to stimulate better minds in cooperatives that are color blind to politics, a green light.. Hope our petroleum industry re-invests in our country’s youth and start making these alternative fuel stations a reality.