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

May 14, 2008

Thomas Quinn, CEO of E-Fuel, explains the MicroFueler at a New York press conference. It's safe, he said, because there is no combustion involved, unlike "moonshining" devices that currently dominate the home ethanol market. And he was eager to distance it from criticism that ethanol demand is driving up food prices--that's corn ethanol, he said, not sugar ethanol.

"Sugar is not something physicians are telling you to eat more of," vice president of Marketing Bruce Padula added. "It is not affecting the food supply to turn it into ethanol." A MicroFueler can produce 35 gallons of ethanol every seven days, at a cost of about US$1 per gallon. Any car can run on the fuel, Padula said.

Quinn explained that the MicroFueler also accepts discarded alcohol, which means that technically you could dispose of that cheap tequila from Cinco de Mayo in a MicroFueler.

Fun fact: Quinn's last entrepreneurial endeavor was Gyration Inc., responsible for the patent behind Nintendo's Wiimote controller.
Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com