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"Henry Ford had it right all along," E-Fuel founder and CEO Thomas Quinn declared, referring to the fact that many original Model T Ford automobiles ran on the ethanol, not gasoline. But that was before the era of Prohibition, which banned production of the biofuel along with other forms of alcohol.
Now, he hopes ethanol can have a real revival. Quinn and his fellow executives recently unveiled the EFuel100 MicroFueler in New York. It looks like a cross between a gas pump and an old-fashioned refrigerator, it'll cost $9,995 (£5,129), and it'll be available for customers in the fourth quarter of 2008 (if all goes well).
What is it, exactly? It's a home ethanol refinery. Connect it to a power source and a water source, add sugar 'feedstock' and yeast or discarded alcohol (yes, that could mean your cheap leftover booze from the sunny weekend) and in a week it can produce 35 gallons (159 litres) of ethanol that Quinn says any car can run on.
"I'm from Silicon Valley and I've worked with some very talented entrepreneurs in my lifetime," explained Quinn, whose previous start-up Gyration was responsible for a patent in Nintendo's "Wiimote" controller. "A couple years ago, I sensed this paradigm shift that we're all feeling today."
He was referring to fossil fuel shortages and the rising cost of gasoline. With gas prices soaring and no real middle ground in the market between industrial biofuels and 'moonshining' operations that can be difficult and dangerous, he saw the opportunity to create the EFuel100.
"It's almost third-grade science to make ethanol," Quinn said. But ethanol, for better or for worse, has got a bad rap. Some have connected rising food prices to the fact that corn-based ethanol means crops are going towards fuel rather than human consumption, and some reports have claimed that ethanol's carbon footprint isn't as 'green' as it appears.
E-Fuel's executives have attempted to counter this rumour by saying that its sugar-based ethanol won't hurt food prices because sugar is a surplus crop, and that sugar ethanol is inherently more efficient than corn. And it's safe to make at home, because no combustion is involved. (We can't help but wonder, however, where the sugar's coming from.)
Quinn reiterated that there's nothing unusual about making car fuel in your back garden. "We're already in the ethanol business," he explained, gesturing to the bar at the back of the restaurant, "but we're using it as a beverage drink."
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