How would you like to have your own gas pump at home?

A Los Gatos entrepreneur is launching a corporation that could make a big impact on the fuel industry. The company's new machine available to consumers can convert sugar and leftover alcoholic drinks into fuel.

SLIDESHOW: MicroFueler Ready For Consumers

The E-fuel Corporation rolled out its new MicroFueler Thursday. The portable machine is about the size of a stackable washer-dryer and could easily fit in a standard driveway.

The MicroFueler produces ethanol that can be used in any car converted for flex fuels. The problem lies in the law because it is illegal to run a car on 100 percent ethanol.



The conversion process happens when sugar or leftover cocktails -- wine or beer -- is poured into its fermentation tank through a grate-covered opening on the machine. The sugar or alcohol is mixed with a measured amount of water already in the tank and the conversion process begins.

SLIDESHOW: Why Are We Paying So Much Per Gallon?

Calling itself the world's first home-sized fuel alcohol plant, the MicroFueler machine has a pump handle for filling whatever uses the ethanol. The high-tech system includes pumps, fans, valves and sensors that help maintain the perfect environment for fermentation.

The MicroFueler sells for just under $10,000 and the sugar for a gallon of ethanol will run between $2 and $2.40. It weighs 200 pounds and can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol per week.

The MicroFueler could be very worthwhile for small businesses and restaurants that discard a lot of alcohol, like the Los Gatos Brewing Company, which told NBC11 that it discards about 5,000 gallons of alcoholic drinks each year.

Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield founded the E-Fuel Corporation in March 2007 to create efficient ethanol micro-refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil, according to their Web site. The company employs 30 people in Los Gatos and Paso Roles, Calif. and in China.