Now, do not start pouring home-made beer in the cars, you will achieve nothing except getting your car drunk.
Alcohol is proving to have many more benefits than we ever thought, it gives us pleasure, it can be used as medicine and it can now be used as aviation and automotive fuel.
A new company has come up with a machine that will help drivers kick the oil habit and make ethanol at home, to help millions of people facing the spiking oil price problem.
When Ethanol made at home is used as fuel, there is no risk of pollution, no hydrocarbons, the car will run much cooler and faster and the miles per tank of fuel is the same as with using the regular fuel. However, in the current economic situation, the crucial factor is that it is extremely economical to make.
A company called E-Fuel Corp, created “MicroFueler,” which they say is the first machine in the world that allows people to make their own ethanol and pump it directly into their cars.
This unit which costs $10000, is portable and looks like a gasoline station pump with a nozzle. They say, this is the best way of avoiding the huge hikes in fuel prices.
The company says that MicroFueler has a sweet tooth, which is very economical to buyers. Sugar is mixed with a type of yeast developed by the company.
It ferments fuel from sugar, and since it uses about 10-14 pounds of sugar to make one gallon of ethanol, if the regular table sugar is used, it is going to be very expensive. However, E-Fuel says that they will help in linking customers to other cheaper supplies, which includes inedible sugar from Mexico, that is just a fraction of the original sugar price, at 2.5 cents per pound, which will come to as little as $1 a gallon (3.8 liters.)
Quinn from E-Fuel also notes that even leftover alcohol can be used as an alternative to sugar, and then the only cost is the electricity.
The main problem with making ethanol until now has been the usage of corn, which has been blamed for being a reason for the spike in global food prices.
E-Fuel is sure that despite the steep upfront costs of the machines, it will succeed in breaking the traditional ethanol system and the machines will pay for themselves.
However, currently it is not legal in the US to run a vehicle using 100% ethanol, but E-Fuel is confident that once their system becomes popular, the regulators will change this law.
Another interesting fact for people who are interested in using ethanol, is that most cars these days are made with fuel injection technology that measures the oxygen content of the fuel and makes it burn efficiently. There are factory ready cars that can run on ethanol.
Many countries also have E85 cars, which are 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. The surprising news that not many people know is that there are more than 2 million cars manufactured every year in the USA, which are all ready to run on E85. The prediction is that within the next few years, 20% of the cars will be fueled by ethanol.
In order to brew ethanol at home, owners of the property where ethanol is to be brewed, must obtain permits from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
E-Fuel is all set to release MicroFueler internationally with production in the UK and China also, in addition to the US. They are also working on various versions that will use other feedstocks too, apart from sugar.