Who needs gasoline if you have old beer?

It sounds too good to be true: A residential system that allows people to make fuel from old beer, leftover wine and other waste products and use it to run their vehicles.

That's what inventors of the E-Fuel MicroFueler claim, and there's support for the idea in government, industry and pop culture. MicroFueler buyers are eligible for a $5,000 tax credit. Former L.A. Laker Shaquille O'Neal is an investor in the system's distributor.

The $10,000 E-Fuel MicroFueler consists of a 250-gallon tank for organic feedstock, such as waste wine and beer, and a still that converts it to pure ethanol, or E-Fuel. The still doubles as a fuel pump, which works similarly to those at gas stations. The only waste product is distilled water.

"If we give everybody the ability to make their own fuel, you break the oil infrastructure," said MicroFueler inventor Tom Quinn, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who also developed the motion-control system for the Nintendo Wii gaming system, a version of which is used in his new micro-refinery.

"Three years ago, I looked at where the world was going, and energy caught my eye," said Quinn, chief executive of E-Fuel Corp. in Los Gatos. "As a world, we had no replacement fuel for gasoline, and that led me to alternative fuels such as ethanol."

The problem with ethanol, Quinn said, was energy inefficiency -- not only in the carbon cost of growing, harvesting and transporting the corn that was used to make it, but also in the distillation process that turned it into usable fuel. Many environmentalists are critical of corn-based ethanol, saying it is an inefficient fuel that uses valuable cropland and increases food prices.

"In the U.S. alone, more than 100 billion gallons of organic fuel is thrown out," said Quinn, who reached out to ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield to see if they could collaborate on a system that could make ethanol in a manner that was cost effective and better for the environment.

The idea was to use organic waste rather than corn to make a product known as cellulosic ethanol.

Although Quinn's MicroFueler is most effective with wastes that are high in alcohol, ethanol "can be made out of any waste -- lawn clippings, dairy products, old chemicals, cardboard, paper, bruised and discarded apples from the grocery store. It can be fermented and turned into fuel in minutes," Quinn said.

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[rsn071]

@oliverjamescarr Exactly. And even if fossil fuels are being burned for electricity, it is usually more efficient use than the constant speeding and slowing of a car. Burn the fuels at a consistent rate for charging many cars at once and also look to minimizing grid loss/ maximizing power storage.

[oliverjamescarr]

@rsn071 Yea their great for going around town, able to charge them from home rather than having to go to a station. E-fuel is great, but a recent article by New Scientist showed how researchers have managed to form an electrical circuit through plant roots that produces the same power in 5 square kilometres of land that would be produced from 35 square kilometres of bio fuel. Same mechanism can also reduce the amount of methane being produced by paddy fields.

[rsn071]

@oliverjamescarr I agree but at the same time, I think it is important to make the transition to electric especially for commuting/ around the town driving. If we can use solar, wind, or whatever to power our cars it would be a great achievement. But yes E-Fuel is the way to go even if only as a transition to the future (especially given the progress made in algae research.)

[rsn071]

@bikr1975 If you have access to free/ cost effective material to distill that's great. The idea is that the company delivers waste to your house and you only pay $2/ gallon as opposed to 3,4 or even 5 dollars in some areas. Some people don't have time/ know-how for making a still etc. If you have a family w/ 2+ flex fuel cars, you can make back your money within a few years. Yes I did the math.

[bikr1975]

SO WHY WOULD PEOPLE WANT TO PAY FOR ETHANOL WHEN YOU CAN GET A NON-COST PERMIT TO OWN YOUR OWN ETHANOL DISTILLERY TO MAKE OVER 10 GALLONS PER DAY?????? WHAT A FUCKING RIPOFF!!. $10,000 FOR THAT PIECE OF SHIT???? GOOD LUCK....YOURE ALL ON YOUR OWN. BYE.

[MAP2films]

I mean is the beer that is made from wheat user friendly for the wheat itself

[MAP2films]

Is this safe for the plants alone?

[taztaz79]

@BarefootArizona No, if its not converted or a Bi-Fuel engine made to go on Ethanol/Gasoline it would damage your engine.

[BarefootArizona]

Can you run a regular gas-powered car on this stuff?

[oliverjamescarr]

@MichaelGrella if I'm honest there is quite a lot of electricity being consumed already. A lot of it comes burning fossil fuels as you may know and if everyone switched to electricity, not so Eco. They would just burn more fuels to keep up with it. With using alcohol you can make it by fermenting sugar cane, it dosent take millions of years to grow sugar cane right?