Posted on Friday 9 May 2008
If you’re tired of paying through the nose at the bowser, a new U.S. company may have the answer for you when it comes to reducing fuel costs. E-Fuel Corp unveiled its latest creation, dubbed the MicroFueler, that allows consumers to produce their own ethanol and pump it into their car from home.
The Microfueler plugs into your home’s power and water supplies, and rather than using expensive corn as a processing material the relatively cheap substitute of sugar is used instead. Historically, global prices for sugar have been very low, and E-Fuel Corp will even point customers in the direction of cheap sugar suppliers that can provide inedible sugar at a fraction of the price of regular sugar. The MicroFueler can make up to 35 gallons of ethanol every week, which should prove an adequate amount for most consumers with two cars or less. The price of producing the ethanol through the machine comes in at around US$1 per gallon, more than three times cheaper than the current price of petrol.
A major hurdle the product faces is its steep initial cost of $10,000, which may deter consumers to invest in the machine. If fuel prices stay constant at their current level, utilizing the machine at its maximum capacity every week for a year will yield a saving of around $4700 over what you would have paid for the same amount of petrol. Theoretically, the machine could pay for itself in little over two years, but this is entirely dependent on the price of sugar, which has the potential to fluctuate.
sounds good but whats to stop people stealing my fuel?
I highly doubt that it will cost only $140/month to run this thing continuously. I am talking only about water and electricity, I don’t even include price of sugar in it.
stephen: a garage
Ivan: electricity is just the recirc pump to keep stuff moving a little, and the pump to put it in your car. the water shouldnt be too expensive, even if the whole process is using 2 gallons of water for every gallon of fuel,.. how much does 70 gallons a week cost? i mean, thats like 50 flushes of the toilet. presumably if you’re in a two car household, using 35 gallons a week in fuel… you’ve got a lot of toilet flushing going on too.
…..its the price of sugar that would be slightly concerning. something tells me you’re talking a lot of sugar.. even if its inedible.. i could see the price of that item going very high very quickly if this technology became cheaper.
but enough said. if you can afford two new (read: E85 compatible) vehicles, and are going through 35 gallons of fuel every week, yeah,.. this thing would definitely be worth it. I’d definitely be jumping on that boat ASAP.
Very, very interesting.
Now, the sugar industry just needs to subsidize the cost of the machine a little bit, and bam, you have a whole new idea for people with garages and flex-fuel vehicles…
You might be able to buy or lease this hydrogen generator:
Here’s an idea: share the thing!
I’m sure a bunch of neighbours can come together and install one of these bad boys as a community pump.