Micro Brewed E85
You know, this sounds crazy, but this MicroFueler thing might just work. I’m no fuel expert (I just play one in the autoblogosphere), but flex fuel vehicles are ready to rock and roll on any mix this bad boy can brew. And now E-Fuel, the maker of the home pump, is expanding beyond the home brew market to… the micro brewery market. CNET’s Green Tech reports, “The inventor of the EFuel100 MicroFueler home ethanol maker has signed on Sierra Nevada Brewing to make ethanol from beer dregs.” I would have thought that waiting around for drinkers to leave the dregs would be a time-consuming business, but then that’s just a bad joke isn’t it? Here’s the real deal…
[Micro-brewer] Sierra Nevada every year generates 1.6 million gallons of “bottom of the barrel” beer yeast waste, which it now sells to farmers as feed. The MicroFueler will be able to raise the alcohol content in that mix to 15 percent and remove water.
Initially, Sierra Nevada plans to use the ethanol in its own vehicles. Once it has excess fuel, it will look to supply employees and distribute through E-Fuel’s distribution network, a company representative said.
Maybe Sierra Nevada should rename their Early Spring Beer ( ESB) E85. Of course, then kids would be sticking E85 gas hoses down their gullet. And we’d have to tell them to “drink responsibly; avoid liquids intended for vehicles.”
More by Robert Farago
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I don't know if the gizmo will pay for itself. The company claims that with some carbon credit scheme if you buy the sugar and yeast from them it works out to $1 a gallon. At current gas prices and the fact that ethyl alcohol has fewer btus than gas, right now it's a wash. The unit itself costs something like $10K. The unit makes up to 70 gallons a week. That's 3,600 gallons a year. If you really use that much fuel and gas gets closer to $3/gal, yeah, the payback is within the life of the unit. So it makes sense for a business like the brewing company to do it. A typical car owner? Not so much.
The only problem I see with this is the fuel tax authorities getting their panties in a twist. There have already been cases where some home fuel brewers have gotten in trouble.
As long as I can store the excess in aged oak barrels for future err...consumption(!) I'm in. I was just looking at flex fuel vehicle today.
Doesn't ESB=Extra Special Bitter (Blessings to the good lads at Fullers)