Smart Plugs fuels innovation with ethanol-based generator

SANDPOINT — A device meant to terminate the use of fossil fuels in modern engines quietly sits in a shop at the edge of town.

Endorsed by California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, the E-FUEL MicroFueler like the one sitting in Mark Cherry’s shop near the Sandpoint airport is the first home ethanol refinery and pumping system in the region.

It uses a fermentation tank to make ethanol, and a pump for owners to fuel their cars and trucks.

Cherry, a Sandpoint inventor whose green technology company, Smart Plugs, manufactures high-tech, clean-burning ignition systems, as well as ethanol conversion kits, recently became the first regional distributor of the MicroFueler.

Cherry and SmartPlugs foreman Bob Alderman gave a demonstration at their Sandpoint shop this week.

“This is number three in the country,” Alderman said. “The other person who has one is Arnold.”

Although few of the ethanol fueling systems have been available for home use so far, they are made with the general public in mind, Alderman said.

“This is the beginning,” Alderman said. “And it’s going to be affordable.”

The system, which uses a fermentation tank that leaves behind a compost-like sludge, siphons the low-grade ethanol into the fueler. The fueler, with its gas station-like pump and nozzle, converts the liquid to a highly concentrated fuel.

The system produces about 70 gallons per week for about a dollar a gallon and costs around 10 grand.

At a savings of approximately $2 per gallon over the cost of gasoline, Cherry points out, “It would pay for itself in a short time.”

Cherry, whose company builds and selals ethanol generators, called GridBusters, as part of the accessory package for the fueler, has been in touch with E-FUEL for two years.

He hopes to market the system to local builders.

“If you have customers that want to be off the grid and green,” Cherry said. “This will help them be off the grid and green.”

The exhaust from the generator’s pipe is almost odorless, and the odor of the fuel itself is more fragrant than foul.

“It should smell like wine,” Cherry said.

Although the present system refines easily fermentable organics into high-quality ethanol, Cherry and Alderman’s next job is to build a larger unit that can turn anything with cellulose, including wood products and grass clippings, into engine-grade ethanol.

The trend is catching on.

Beer companies such as Sierra Nevada are joining E-FUEL to convert discarded beer yeast into a high-grade combustible fuel, and Midwest farmers with their abundant supply of agricultural waste products are among candidates for the E-FUEL system, Cherry said.

The fueler in his shop has been sold to a client in Wisconsin who plans to convert waste from a sugar plant into ethanol fuel.

In many cases federal tax credits will pay up to 50 percent of the cost of going green, Cherry said.

“All these alternative fuel systems get tax rebates,” he said. “You can get as much as 50 percent of the cost back.”

Cherry, whose company continues to refine ways to increase power output through conversion of gasoline and diesel engines to ethanol, has high hopes for the E-FUEL system.

Despite being in its early stages, the vision of E-FUEL is similar to one that sparked personal computers, Cherry said.

“It will do to companies like BP and Exxon and Chevron, what Apple did to IBM,” he said.

That is, making clean-energy ethanol use practical and affordable for the average Joe.

The company’s website is http://www.microfueler.com/, or, call SmartPlugs Corp. at (208) 265-2723.