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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touts the MicroFueler

What a week!  Today I had the chance to go to Sacramento to attend the unveiling of the E-Fuel MicroFueler on the steps of the California Capitol Building.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Adams, Secretary of the California EPA, were on hand to make the introductions to a crowd of several hundred.  Entrepreneur and E-Fuel founder Thomas Quinn told us how he became interested in home ethanol production, and why he thinks the Organic Fuel Revolution will change the world.

In the morning I’m heading to E-Fuel’s manufacturing facility in Paso Robles, CA.  There’s a two day workshop for the folks forming E-Fuel’s dealer network.  Representatives from all over the world will be on hand to learn how to maintain the MicroFuelers they’ll be selling.

DesignMind has been working with the E-Fuel team to develop the E-Fuel Global Network.  This network allows the company, it’s dealers, and MicroFueler owners to monitor the health, performance, and real-time status, of every MicroFueler on the planet.  Each unit is equipped with internet connectivity (wired, Wi-Fi, cellular, and satellite), a GPS, and all the telemetry needed to monitor the vital signs as well as the amount and quality of ethanol each unit produces.

At the workshop, we’ll be demonstrating the E-Fuel Global Network for the dealers who will be selling and supporting the product.  This is the culmination of a lot of work by several very talented teams.  We’ll get feedback and more good ideas, and continue to make the network even better.

For the engineers in the crowd, the E-Fuel Global Network is built using Microsoft’s .NET 3.5 Framework, and SQL Server 2008.

Here’s a video of the event with Governor Schwarzenegger, as well as a full transcript of the remarks.

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One of the companies I’m most interested in right now is the EFuel Corporation.  Based in Los Gatos, CA, EFuel produces a home ethanol device called the MicroFueler – the world’s first home ethanol refinery system.  Now you can make ethanol in your own garage and use it to run your car.

A MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol a week and runs on a standard household AC power supply.  Sugar, yeast and water ferment, and the high tech filtration system efficiently separates out the ethanol.  

But wait, it gets better!  Sierra Nevada Brewery plans to use the MicroFueler to turn discarded beer yeast into fuel for its fleet of biofuel trucks.  Sierra Nevada generates 1.6 million gallons of “bottom of the barrel” beer yeast waste each year, which it now sells to farmers as feed.  But going forward, management plans to use MicroFuelers to run their whole fleet of biofuel trucks.  

Why am I so excited about EFuel?   Well, for one thing DesignMind created the EFuel web site.  (Check out the Video Room.)   We’re also continuing to work on some really interesting software that monitors the efficiency of all the MicroFuelers out in the field, and allows owners to monitor their units using a web-based dashboard.

On June 4th, EFuel will be in Sacramento to launch the MicroFueler with California Governor Schwarzenegger, who’s a leading proponent of renewable energy sources.  So check out the mighty MicroFueler, and the next time you’re ready for a cold beer, go green by drinking a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale!

The Microfueler in Action

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