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E-Fuel Microfueler Saviour For Luxury Gas Guzzlers

Posted by Patrick Woolmer on Sun 27th April 2008 at 05:31 PM, Filed in Go Green, Luxury Auto

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Although, $120 a barrel oil isn’t going to affect your local billionaire - it’s most certainly going to affect luxury car propulsion and design for years to come. Will it be hydrogen fuel cell technology, electric, bio fuels or some undiscovered technology that will herald in a new era in clean and affordable motoring?

Well, Floyd S. Butterfield and Thomas J. Quinn seem to be pinning their hopes on the E-fuel 100 Microfueler. This contraption, it is claimed, can distill high grade ethanol from sugar and yeast that is pure enough to fill a gas tank. Given that they predict the E-Fuel Microfueler can generate ethanol at $1 per gallon, this could spell the start of a boom in home brewing!!

The premise of the Microfueler is that a high grade filtration membrane system promotes ethanol distillation at much lower temperatures than normal. Although, sugar is said to be the preferred raw material, Floyd S Butterfield and Thomas J. Quinn are looking at other cheaper raw materials.

Before you you start throwing generous amounts of cold water on this idea, it’s worth pointing out that Mr Quinn is the bright spark who patented the Wii’s motion sensor technology.

Nonetheless there are some hurdles to be overcome:

1. The microfueler has be cheap to manufacture. The current model costs $10,000.

2. Rising costs of sugar could ground the idea before it hits the runway. Sustainable alternatives are a must.

3. The United States does not permit vehicles to run on pure ethanol.

If these hurdles can be overcome, then it maybe that the microfueler might just give the luxury gas guzzler a new lease of life. We’ll see.......

Also check out our article about the Hydro 4000.

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READER COMMENTS:

Damn, I knew I should kept my home brew kit from college…

Posted by Syrus on Sun 27th April 2008 at 06:27 PM | #

I hope this gets rolled out in time to save my thirsty Hummer. Just can’t afford to run it for much longer.

Posted by Todd on Sun 27th April 2008 at 06:31 PM | #

Surely sugar prices are going to make this unviable?

Posted by Tim Nice on Sun 27th April 2008 at 06:33 PM | #

If this helps save the planet then great. If it helps crazy gas guzzler enthusiasts to continue raping our planet then no thanks....

Posted by Mary Tews on Sun 27th April 2008 at 06:35 PM | #

The rule about not using 100 ethanol is not a big deal. Add a little real gas to your tank now and then.

Posted by Thomass on Tue 29th April 2008 at 12:19 AM | #

Seems they have forgotten a small detail: it’s illegal to make your own ethanol in the USA! (currently, it’s better known in the south as “moonshinin") and that the majority of the retail cost of gasoline is actually TAX. The US govt and the IRS will shut this down 20 microseconds after it launches!

Posted by Rob on Tue 29th April 2008 at 12:59 AM | #

Of course you can make your own booze or ethanol. It’s legal in the USA. It’s amazing how many stupid people there are in this country.

Posted by Bob on Mon 5th May 2008 at 05:19 PM | #

Actually, Bob it is illegal to produce your own spirits in the U.S. without an ATF license (see http://www.atf.gov/alcohol/info/faq/genalcohol.htm). Anyway, this will only work if a few people used it. Large scale use would quickly drive the price of sugar so high that it would not make sense anymore. If the price to produce ethanol from sugar was this low on a large scale corporations would be doing it already. Mr Quinn may be a brilliant man but clearly has not looked closely at the economics.

Posted by Nick on Wed 7th May 2008 at 03:35 PM | #

I am well experienced with fermentation and wine making. I know for a fact, that on the average, it takes 17 lbs of white pure cane powdered sugar to produce a gallon of pure alcohol.

The cheapest sugar that I can find is $22.11 per 50 lb bag at CostCo, or $0.4422/lb. The cost of sugar to produce one gallon of pure ethanol would be: 17 lbs x $0.4422 per lb = $7.52 per gallon of ethanol. Now add to it the cost of electricity consumed by the Microfueler device as it separates the alcohol from the fermented solution. If your yeast is good at 12.5% ABV solution, then you would distill 8 gallons of fermented solution. Distillation is a major cost, and the energy cost can be significantly reduced if the device uses reflux methods and heat recovery techniques.

Not counting my cost of hauling the 50 lb bag from the store and loading it to the device, the $7.52 is pretty too step a price to pay for a gallon of ethanol. The $7.52 is VERY CHEAP, however, compared to a gallon of Bacardi 151.

Posted by Joe Real on Thu 8th May 2008 at 11:56 PM | #

Do any of you honestly believe big oil will allow this to ever go beyond small scale? Hell no.

Posted by James on Fri 9th May 2008 at 05:53 PM | #

I’ve bought the $22/ 50lb pound of sugar from costco and with my reflux still, i was able to produce(85+% pure ethanol) 5 gallons at a rate of 1 quart every 45min from 30lb of the sugar.
I did spend about $10 for the propane but did not use it up completely.
The yeast was $2-$4 from local bakery.
It is still very cost effective, all depends on the type of still you have. Pot stills are very inefficient, reflux stills give you a purer product and work much better.

Posted by jeff fargo on Fri 9th May 2008 at 07:16 PM | #

$1/gallon is pure fantasy. Why were they allowed to dirtibute a completely inaccurate press release like this. They should be sued. The most liberal estimates of costs for even the most efficient process out there are about $5-$6 per gallon. These are for high mass production distilleries. Small products like this are in the $7-$8 range. Plus they cost a pretty penny to buy up front.
You must also consider the fact that ethanol has only ` of the energy of the competing petroleum product. Meaning you will consume an average of 0 more in your vehicle to achieve the same performance.
I hate to be so negative, but from and environmental and economic perspective ethanol is a DISASTER. It does FAR greater damage than good either way.
I like the fuel cell concept as far as environmental goes, but the cost is outrageous and will not become practical anytime soon. I say keep looking there is bound to be some form of energy out there better than the current alternatives.

Posted by WR on Sat 10th May 2008 at 02:36 PM | #

The sugar they are basing the cost on is raw (not for consumption) sugar imported from Mexico at a cost of about 2 cents a pound. There is a full reprt about this at cnbc.com

Posted by tropx on Tue 13th May 2008 at 09:30 PM | #

David Blume’s 30-years in-the-making textbook-sized book “Alcohol Can Be A Gas” debunks all the above anti-ethanol mythology and propaganda spread by Big Oil meme-zombies.