How to make your car run on tequila (sort of)

May 14, 2008

Startup E-Fuel shows off a home ethanol distiller the company says can fuel your car in your own backyard for as little as US$1 per gallon.

Meet the EFuel100 MicroFueler, which parent company E-Fuel says is the "world's first home ethanol product". It's a personal refinery system that hooks up to a water source, a power source, and a waste water disposal outlet--"just like a washing machine," as Floyd Butterfield, E-Fuel's vice president of Biofuels and Technology, described to reporters in a recent press conference in New York.

MicroFueler owners load up the device with yeast and sugar "feedstock", a variety of sugar not intended for human consumption. After fermentation and processing, the MicroFueler can hook up to a car and fill it just like a gas pump.

The MicroFuelers can be pre-ordered now and will ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 if all goes as planned. It'll cost US$9,995, but executives hinted that carbon tax credits on the state and federal level may help subsidize the price.

Want one? You'll need a federal license to produce alcohol, of which ethanol fuel is a form. But MicroFueler executives said that the government isn't picky about granting them, and the approval process takes a matter of weeks.
Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com