EFuel100 is coming out with an automated ethanol plant for your home in the second quarter. The cost is approximately $10,000 but will drop to 7,000 after government rebates. Here is their link to get the discussion started: EFueler100
Ethanol is a BAD idea so scrap this waste of time and money. I would have thought you'd know better.
So...ethanol is a bad idea...where did you get your information? Only 2% of the pollution of gasoline. You can recycle the mash and byproducts back into your ecosystem. You can feed fish in a closed loop permaculture. Corn ethanol is questionable, but...using garbage and trash to produce ethanol doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. Did you know that you can get 1000 gallons of fuel per acre from cattails? Did you know that you can use kelp? All these sources grow back rapidly and nothing is loss. If you would like to do some homework I suggest you go to www.permaculture.com but please just don't go there without honestly studying the material. I make my own alcohol fuel and let me tell you it is a good thing! My question is on the prefab unit above. It's intriguing to me but I'm not sure of its use.
I agree Ehtanol is a good idea, but corn ethanol is a bad idea. I guess these two things have been mixed up. Ethanol has less energy than petrol, but is much cleaner. As long as the raw materials are properly chosen, it should help our situation in many ways.
Yes, I would agree that their are other nonfood crops or waste products that would be better suited to ethanol
production and the farmer could still make a good buck on these.
That's exactly the issue - ethanol has gotten a bad reputation because corn-based ethanol is not particularly environmentally friendly (roughly on par with gasoline in terms of overall CO2 emissions). Other ethanol sources have very good potential though.
What strikes me funny with ethanol is when people support converting natural gas to make it.
1. Natural gas is a relatively clean fuel compared to most.
2. The conversion requires energy and has it's own byproducts.
Doesn't seem to make sense.
Commercially the whole ethanol thing gets very complicated when you start into it. Small scale residential has a whole diferent set of conditions and economics.
Trying to determine who knows and who is just chattering is not easy.
Russ, you make a lot of sense. I very much like what I have heard from David Blume. His book is excellent on Ethanol....A very huge book.... Alcohol Can Be A Gas His website, (yes he sells products, but he really is trying to preach the word), contains a lot of contact information for the small home ethanol producer.
Gov. Schwarzenegger likes it! The MicroFueler team will be in Sacramento on June 4th for an unveiling on the capitol steps. http://markginnebaugh.com/blog/
