Images: How to make your car run on tequila (sort of)

by CNET News.com | May 9, 2008 3:42am PDT | Image 1 of 4

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NEW YORK--Meet the EFuel100MicroFueler, which parent company E-Fuel says is the "world's first home ethanol product." It's a personal refinery system that hooks up to a water source, a power source, and a waste water disposal outlet--"just like a washing machine," as Floyd Butterfield, E-Fuel's vice president of biofuels and technology, described to reporters in a press conference Thursday in New York.

MicroFueler owners load up the device with yeast and sugar "feedstock," a variety of sugar not intended for human consumption.After fermentation and processing, the MicroFueler can hook up to a car and fill it just like a gas pump.

The MicroFuelers can be pre-ordered now and will ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 if all goes as according to planned. It'll cost $9,995, but executives hinted that carbon tax credits on the state and federal level may help subsidize the price.

Want one? You'll need a federal license to produce alcohol, of which ethanol fuel is a form. But MicroFueler executives said that the government isn't picky about granting them, and the approval process takes a matter of weeks.

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