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Photos: Fill 'er up with yeast and sugar
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 press conference on Thursday 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 petrol 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 $9,995 (£4,500), but executives hinted that carbon tax credits on the US state and federal level may help subsidise the price.
Want one? You'll need a federal licence 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
Based on Images: How to make your car run on tequila (sort of) on CNET News
