I've commented on that all over the internet.
Those of us with passion for wine making, it takes on the average, the equivalent of 17 lbs of sugar to make the equivalent of 1 gallon of pure ethanol. This is based on actual measurement of average normal fermentation, and not theoretical calculations. Yeasts and other microorganisms will consume part of the sugar and not turn them into alcohol. Some alcohol will also volatilize, enhanced by the carbon dioxide that is produced alongside. If yeasts did not consume the sugars, and none of the alcohol evaporated away when carbon dioxide is released, then theoretically, it takes 12.2201822 lbs of sucrose to produce a gallon of ethanol. But volatilization and utilization happens, and the fermenting environment is less than ideal compared to pure enzymatic reactions, so on the average, it takes 17 lbs of sugar to produce 1 gallon of ethanol.
Sugar at retail is $22.10 per 50 lb bag, from Costco. And that comes to $0.4422/lb retail price. So it would cost me $7.52 per gallon of ethanol. Add to it the electricity consumed in the refining process. Not counting my cost of hauling the 50 lb bag from the store, loading it up to the device. The $7.52 is pretty too steep a price to pay for a gallon of ethanol. The $7.52 is VERY CHEAP, however, compared to a gallon of Bacardi 151.
Their proprietary patented membrane distillation system is not innovative, there are several thousand literature about that. Their claim that they can use non-food grade sugar at $0.02 a lb, that will never happen in retail. Yes, one may obtain $0.02 a lb of inedible dirty sugar from a third world farmer, then you have to add the cost of transporting such sugar from places like Mexico, and so is certainly going to cost more at retail, and add to it, the hype and panic reaction price to sugar, I am sure it would go the way how corn prices would sky rocket even if the refined sugar for sale now is unrelated to the raw feedstock sugar.
And for $9,995 device? A very good distillation setup that is available from retail, right now, can be had for $299 with free shipping and handling. These are available from Brewhaus. I even have an excellent design that would cost you less than $100 if you have a pressure cooker.
