Is fuel legal

[Opus 27]

I\'ve had this obsurd thought; if we were daft enough and we so wished we could drink meths and we could also drink petrol. I know this would make us very ill if it didn\'t kill us but as far I\'m aware it would not be breaking any law. Doesn\'t that make you think about the bio-fuel situation which we can produce in the UK quite legaly. So if I make my bio fuel from say sugar and perhaps filter it for better performance if I choose to add a bit of flavour to it would I be breaking the law for drinking my home made fuel, at my own risk of course.
Opus

[goinbroke2]

Not sure about the UK but everywhere else, yes you need a license to distill alcohol for fuel purposes, the only differences is that you must poison it with gas etc. I forget the word, it\'s not poison but you get my drift.
Speaking of bio fuels though, I run a 7.3 diesel in my four door one ton (daily driver) and it\'s been run on everything from furnace oil to warmed up french fry oil. In the UK you need to pay a road tax on homemade bio fuel AND on fry oil you use as petrol. If they are that tight on getting taxes with oil, I\'m quite sure they would be all over you for making alcohol for fuel.
Doesn\'t matter why you are doing it, your still making alcohol. For that you must be licensed.

[Phantom]

In the UK, ALL \"road\" type fuels are \"excise goods\". Yes you can indeed produce your own, but you do need to be registered with HMRC for an excise account. Even something non-volatile, like Bio-Diesel attracts an excise duty.
I seem to recall it\'s something like 10p per litre. Don\'t forget, it would also attract sales tax/VAT, currently @ 15%, rising back to 17.5% in the new year.
The difference ? Well the excise duty is on a per litre production basis, whereas the VAT is on the retail value, hence the VAT can actually be considerably more than the excise duty (in this case), unlike the production of potable spirits, where the duty is currently £22.64, per 1% ABV, per 100 litres so the VAT is less than excise duty in that example if the spirits are 40% (industry standard in the UK - unless your name is \"Mr Gordons\" or \"Mr Smirnoff\" - they\'ve dropped them to 37.5% ABV so who do you think is gaining the difference in the slightly lower excise duty etc ).

[trelliS]

think flavours are already added to fuels on the governments say so but they taste like sh1t to stop us drinkin it .............spoils sports lol think if the essence companies cud develop a flavour to neutralise the bad ones it wud save us a lot of time stillin n filtering ha ha ha but then we wouldnt have this wonderful hobby of ours ..

[Opus 27]

So how do we interpret this extact from HM Customs

\"4.2.1 Exempt producers/users

If you have produced or used less than 2,500 litres of:
any biofuel, or

any other fuel substitute or additive

within the last 12 months, and/or expect to produce or use less than 2,500 litres in the next 12 months, you are an exempt producer and do not need to register with us and account for duty. However, there are simple record keeping requirements, which are described in paragraph 4.9.1.
Production includes the manufacture or processing of road fuel, and the setting aside of any product that has not been charged with duty, with the intention of using it as road fuel.

[still crazy]

hi,i belive the law on excise duty/vat on road fules changed about 18 months to 2 years ago,as opus states you can make upto 2500L a year and as long as its not being sold there is no duty to pay ,you can buy the equiptment and necessary aditives on line make friends with your local chippie/chineese and volia bio diesil

[optic]

Thats the what I thought was the case to Opus27,the paperwork that came with my still said that.

[Opus 27]

So guys does that mean we can drink our sugar based biofuel without breaking the law
Opus

[still crazy]

sorry but anything less than 90% is not bio fuel in the eyes of hmrc,anything over 80% is likley to be leathel to drink

[Phantom]

I suspect all that would be up to the lawyers....

sorry but anything less than 90% is not bio fuel in the eyes of hmrc,anything over 80% is likley to be leathel to drink

So, it\'s time to start moding the SS super reflux\'s then, or make something more efficient..;-P

[Opus 27]

So then what we need is someone with the right still, cast iron stomach, loads of money and a good barrister. Any offers on that?
Opus

[Phantom]

So then what we need is someone with the right still, cast iron stomach, loads of money and a good barrister. Any offers on that?

I\'ll let you know when I\'ve won the lottery ;-P