US inventors claim to have perfected a device that allows people to make their own ethanol fuel for as little at 50p a gallon.
Floyd Butterfield has started a company with venture capitalists to market the $10,000 E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler.
The machine converts sugar and some household waste into ethanol. Butterfield estimates that it is possible to provide fuel at a dollar a gallon.
"It is going to cause havoc in the market and cause great financial stress in the oil industry," Silicon Valley entrepreneur Thomas Quinn, the man behind the Wii motion sensor and a backer of the scheme, told the International Herald Tribune.
The machine uses sugar, water and electricity in concert with a specially developed yeast formula to make the fuel.
Quinn said that other fuels can be used, and that he collects waste alcohol from local bars to make his own fuel.
Butterfield claimed that he has cracked several key problems with ethanol production, including designing special filters to accelerate the process. The byproduct of the process is drinkable water.
Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley, said: "There are a lot of hurdles you have to overcome, and it is entirely possible that they have done it, but scepticism is a virtue."
Butterfield's company plans to launch in the UK, the US and China by the end of the year.
Emissions-free vehicle from classic manufacturer 04 Mar 2008
Small businesses and individuals can produce their own biofuels 09 May 2008
Fresh from securing $100m in funding Range Fuels is pressing ahead with the construction of an ethanol plant capable of turning wood into biofuel 04 Apr 2008
New enzyme promises to speed delivery of second-generation biofuels made from waste biomass 18 Oct 2007
Controversial Bioethanol firm outlines plans for a plant designed to turn citrus waste into biofuel 31 Jan 2008Report claims global voluntary carbon offset market worth $331m last year 15 May 2008
New TelePresence technology almost a tenth of the cost of first-generation kit 15 May 2008
Two separate research teams claim world record solar efficiency rates of over 23 per cent 15 May 2008
More news
Green business courses are springing up think and fast, but as Vanessa Crossgrove Fry warns it could still be several years before we see Green MBAs take their place in the largest firms 14 May 2008
BusinessGreen.com reports from the Think 08 conference where the great and the good of the construction industry reveal their plans for the zero carbon buildings of the future 13 May 2008 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
