Before you get too excited, please note that the unit is probably too expensive for your next block party, unless you’ve got an extra $9,995 lying around somewhere. Fortunately, state and Federal tax credits can halve this, but that still keeps it out of the price range of the average American.

How could making ethanol be so expensive? As Thomas Quinn quipped, this is “third-grade science. You just mix together water, sugar and yeast, and in a few hours, you start getting ethanol.” That’s not the hard part; what’s difficult is purifying ethanol to the degree that it can be mixed successfully with gasoline.

Ethanol has been made from yeast-fermentation of grain, fruits, and vegetables for thousands of years. Distillation, which gets around the 15% alcohol concentration limit that kills yeast, followed shortly thereafter. Adding ethanol to motor fuel takes things one step further. To mix properly with gasoline, ethanol must be anhydrous (containing no water) at 100% pure, or 200-proof. Homemade ethanol stills can easily produce 95% pure, or 190-proof, ethanol. But getting that last 5% of water out of the ethanol can require just as much energy as it did to get out the first 95%.

It could be the ingenuity of putting several thousand years of knowledge into one box makes the MicroFueler so costly. It can fill its own 35-gallon tank with E100 (100% ethanol) in about a week by fermenting the sugar, water and yeast internally, then separating out the water through a membrane filter.

Compared to homebrewing biodiesel, which can be done with less than $100 worth of equipment, making ethanol for motor fuel seems complicated and expensive. While sugar appears to be a cheap, ubiquitous resource, according to one expert it takes 10 to 14 pounds of sugar to make a gallon of ethanol. Right now, raw sugar sells in the United States for about 20 cents a pound.

Although the cost of each gallon of ethanol produced in the MicroFueler depends on the price of sugar, electricity, and water, Thomas Quinn maintains that it can be made for somewhere around $1 per gallon. The company is trying to make inedible sugar available from Mexico, which can be bought for as little as 2.5 cents per pound.

I like the idea, but this probably isn’t something that will go mainstream unless the price comes down. If you want more information about homebrewing ethanol, or plans to make your own still (which would be substantially cheaper), see these resources:

• RunningOnAlcohol Library
• JourneyToForever Ethanol Resources

Posts Related to Ethanol and Biodiesel:

• Study: Your Car Can Run On 20% Ethanol
• 6 Ways To Find And Use Biodiesel Anywhere
• Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths Dispelled
• Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

Via: NYT
Photo Credit: Popular Mechanics

Perhaps it’s the stunning scenes. These ancient hills tumbling down to jagged coastal cliffs shaped by storms that have raged for millennia - they put me and others in our place. These views make us realise that we are merely a modern species that can be snuffed out in an instant if we don’t obey envronmental rules.

Perspective springs to mind. There are no god given rights here. Clean up your act or further tempt fierce temperatures that could induce extinction.

But to business. Whether inspired by the scenes described or not, Devonians certainly seem to do their bit for the environmental cause.

Modbury

As highlighted in the national press, a small Devon town that became the first place in Europe to go plastic bag free.

Totnes

An absolute goldmine of environmental action. The UK’s first town exploring how to prepare for a carbon constrained, energy lean world. Click here to read about the Totnes Pound. Turning the concept of money on its head?

Jurassic Coast

The Devon Wildlife Trust work tirelessly to protect this part of the nation’s coastline. And with good reason. Timeless beauty.

My thanks to Flickr users for sharing their photos.

Sunset

Coast

Most recently, the City of San Francisco and partnership with non profit LightsOutSF.org has issued a "Lights Out" ordinance from 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. The city's landmarks like Alcatraz, TransAmerica building, and parts of our lovely bridges will shut off their lights to announce the importance of energy conservation.