Gizmodo: alternative fuels

Korean Research Makes Hydrogen Manufacture 30 Times Cheaper

Kit Eaton — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Scientists at Korea's S&P Energy Research Institute have worked out a way of manufacturing hydrogen that's 20-30 times cheaper than current methods. Typical electrolysis methods in use take about 4 to 4.5 kWh of energy for each cubic meter of H2 gas but the new Korean method (apparently a chemical process) takes just 0.1 kWh, with associated production cost savings. Why should you care about this? Because as a component of some fuel cell technology, hydrogen might become one of the fuels of the future, and a lowering of its manufacturing costs seems like a fantastic way to help usher-in an era of hydrogen-powered gadgets. [Newswire]

First Ever Hydrogen Vehicle 'Cross-Country' Road Trip Had a Lot of Help

Jack Loftus — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:45:00 EDT

I'm all for hydrogen—or any alternative fuel source for that matter (Shai Agassi, my man, let's get cooking already!)—but if you're going to heavily promote your cross-country trek as the "first ever" for hydrogen-powered vehicles, at least make sure large, 1,000-mile stretches of it did not involve having the vehicles carried along on flatbed trucks. This was the case today as the "Hydrogen Road Tour '08" wrapped up in Los Angeles after its 60-strong vehicle fleet entered the Los Angeles Coliseum. From Rolla, Missouri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the caravan was carried on the back of carbon-belching flat bed tractor trailer trucks. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of an alternative fuel road trip right then and there?

Part of the gaff was, of course, due to that fact that there are just 60 hydrogen stations in the U.S., and only two of those are open to the public "without prior arrangement," says Reuters. Nevertheless, event promoter Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (a major tour supporter), was optimistic about hydrogen's chances.

"There's a hunger out there for clean, safe vehicles," Brubaker said. "The common refrain everywhere we went was 'Where do we get these cars?'" As a personal aside, I, too, would be interested in such a venture, especially if it meant large swaths of my morning commute involved hopping on the back of a truck, and having someone else do the driving for me.

More seriously, hydrogen as a major fuel source is pretty much nowhere near becoming mainstream. As the article notes, bigwig auto makers like Honda and General Motors only have plans to test a handful of hydrogen vehicles this year and next in select markets.

A best-case scenario out of the car industry has only 2 million hydrogen-powered electric vehicles on the roads by 2020.

At least there was some diversity on this cross-country trip: Cars were provided by Honda, GM, Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co, BMW AG, Daimler AG, Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co, and Volkswagen AG. No word on those flatbeds. [Reuters]

MicroFueler Home Ethanol Pump Unveiled, Ready For Pre-Orders

Benny Goldman — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:10:00 EDT

E-Fuel's MicroFueler, the home-based ethanol production system that makes gas from sugar or stale beer, was unveiled for the first time today in New York. E-Fuel says it will now take preorders for the $10,000 system, and will ship it by the end of the year. As you can see, it's not the smallest thing—no wonder the original image of it only showed a corner. Given its bulk and its price, what makes investing in this particular ethanol machine really worth it?

The system takes feedstock (a combination of sugar and yeast) or discarded alcohol, and combines it with water to distill 100% pure ethanol. Turning sugar into gas may sound like the work of mad scientists, but according to CEO Tom Quinn, home ethanol production was advocated and used by Henry Ford when he created the Model T. I imagine that home-made ethanol wasn't as easy to make back then, because if it was, we probably wouldn't have switched to gasoline in the first place.

The MicroFueler produces ethanol using membrane distillation. Sugar, yeast and water are blended together to create the chemical reaction that produces ethanol. After two days, the fermented sugar water is turned into vapor, and the ethanol is separated from the water. By the end of the week, the MicroFueler reservoir will hold 35 gallons of pure ethanol, enough to fill at least two cars. This is a lot like Dean Kamen's water purifier, except in reverse. In fact, creator Floyd Butterfield says the water by-product is clean enough to drink.

The most astounding part is that a car doesn't require pure ethanol to run, due to its higher-than-gasoline octane content. E-Fuel says you can fill up your tank with 75% ethanol and 25% water and your car will run fine.

The price tag may seem steep, but federal, state and local tax credits can bring the price as low as $5000—average cost with credits is more like $7000. The creators say an average home will save around $4200 on gas each year, and the machine will pay for itself in about a year and a half.

That said, people have been doing this on their own for a while. Plans available online estimate a true DIY machine costs about $500 to build, but for those who don't want to run the risk of spontaneous combustion (like me), the MicroFueler seems like a wise alternative. [E-Fuel]

E-Fuel MicroFueler Turns Sugar, Stale Beer Into Gas For Your Ride

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:50:00 EDT

The dream of a home ethanol pump has been realized, says the New York Times, thanks to inventor named Floyd S. Butterfield. One of the world's only celebrated non-hillbilly still-makers, Butterfield has invented the $10,000 E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler, a gadget that combines heaps of sugar and a sprinkling of yeast to ferment an alcoholic brew which it then distills into ethanol. The notion is that, as long as the price of sugar stays relatively low, it could cost about $1 per gallon to make the fuel. It's even cheaper when you put un-drunk stale beer in the system: Since the fermentation is done, all it takes is the electricity to distill the beer into ~~scotch whiskey~~ fuel for your car.

Carbon haters would be happy that a gallon of the MicroFueler's ethanol is supposed to produce just 12.5% of the carbon from a gallon of normal gasoline. Butterfield is also someone who people should listen to: In 1982 he won an award from the state of California for "best design of an ethanol still" says the Times. (I had NO idea I could enter my still in a competition!)

Naysayers predict that quality control would be a problem (and anyone who's ever homebrewed beer can probably attest to the finicky nature of the process. Others charge that since sugar costs 20-cents per pound, and you need 10 to 14 pounds to make a gallon of ethanol, well, there goes your cost savings. But Butterfield and his Silicon Valley finance whiz/business partner Thomas J. Quinn swears you can buy "inedible sugar" from South of the Border for 2 to 3 cents per pound.

There's also a small matter of 100% ethanol being illegal as an automotive fuel, but Quinn says that, too, will be resolved. [NYT]

Wood You Believe?

Charlie White — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:38:14 EST

We knew things were getting bad in Serbia, but this is ridiculous. Our beloved blogging brothers-in-arms from Jalopnik tell us about a Serbian Yugo with a rather unusual fuel source. Instead of pulling the car along with horses, somebody tapped into a different kind of 125-year-old technology and ended up with a car that's faster than the original—which is not a tall order when you're talking about a Yugo. That anachronistic-looking smokestack on the back of the car uses wood gas for fuel. The idea here is that wood doesn't burn completely, and emits hydrogen and methane is a byproduct. Hey, isn't that stuff flammable? Yep. Put it in a conventional internal combustion engine, you have a special fuel that gets the job done. You laugh. Someday we may be looking for the plans for this thing.