Laws regarding distillation of bio fuels for personal use

[Bigred]

Just want to know if anyone knows what the laws are regarding distillation of ethanol. I went to the local

home brew shop and it looked pretty legal to me you could by everything you needed to start making moonshine.

But i want to use waste fruit from the super market and ferment it and use it as a fuel. Your advice would be greatly

appreciated .

[shortly]

Would depend on what kind of biofuel you were intending to make?

If it involves distillation & your still is greater than 4L capacity then it is required to be registered with the commonwealth for the collection of excise regardless of whether or not any actually needs to be paid.

If you are using waste oil or the like i suspect council & possibly the state would get excited (not in a good way) if you were processing it or storing the raw materials in a residential or rural res area.

Probably a shit ton of other laws covering different aspects of this if you care to dig, fortunately a goodly number of laws aren't actually enforced so if your quiet about it you can just slide on by

[Bigred]

+1

Your the man shortly a true asset to our community

[ballzac]

If it involves distillation & your still is greater than 4L capacity then it is required to be registered with the commonwealth for the collection of excise regardless of whether or not any actually needs to be paid.

Unless something has changed, these laws cover possession of a still only, and it is illegal to distill any quantity of ethanol without a license.

[waterboy 2.0]

the ATO are the non-fun guys:

http://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Excise/In-detail/Alcohol/Spirits/FAQs-for-distillation-equipment-%28stills%29/

I also believe we are one of the few countries that does not allow the free production of personal spirit (?). In NZ you can run a personal still.

Frequently asked questions for distillation equipment (stills) What you need to know about using a still

The following is what you need to know before you can obtain or use a still or stills. There are a number of requirements you need to meet.

Do you need permission for a still?

If you are not a licensed excise manufacturer and the still has a capacity of more than five litres, you need permission for the still regardless of what the equipment will be used for.

Download an Application for permission - still (NAT 71905) form in Portable Document Format [PDF, 105kB]. Complete this form to apply for permission.

End of further information

If you are a licensed excise manufacturer you can buy, import, manufacture, dispose of, possess, own or sell a still without permission.

If you are not a licensed excise manufacturer you can buy, import, manufacture, dispose of, possess, own or sell a still without permission if:

• the still has a capacity of five litres or less, and
• it will not be used to distil alcohol.

You will have committed an offence and penalties may apply if you do not have the appropriate permission.

End of attention

What is defined as alcohol in relation to distilling?

Alcohol includes spirits, ethyl alcohol and ethanol. It does not include methanol, propenol, isopropenol and butanol.

Do you need a licence to distil alcohol?

If you want to distil alcohol you must hold an excise manufacturer licence prior to distilling alcohol, regardless of the size or capacity of the still. Licence application forms are available at www.ato.gov.au/excise

What if you want to distil alcohol at home?

If you have a still at home, you must hold an excise manufacturer licence before you can distil alcohol. Excise licences are only granted to applicants who can demonstrate they meet the requirements set out in the Excise Act 1901. These include the need for physically secure premises (to prevent any other person having access to the licensed area), skills and experience in distillation, having professionally calibrated volume and alcoholic strength measuring equipment and an approved record keeping system.

You must pay excise duty on any alcohol you produce. The current rate is in excess of $71 per litre of alcohol. For example, on a 700ml bottle of vodka at an alcoholic strength of 40% the excise duty would be approximately $20 per bottle.

The distillation of alcohol is controlled by excise law and administered by us. If you distil alcohol without a licence you will have committed an offence, and penalties may apply.

End of attention

Can you use your still other than for the distillation of alcohol?

You can use your still for a variety of purposes including the distillation of essential oils or for purifying water. You need to have permission for the still for these activities if it has a capacity of more than five litres.

There was some fingers pointed at home brew spirits down here recently

It was found however cause of death was not the home spirit...lol

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-30/alcohol-experts-call-for-education-on-home-distilled-alcohol/4924426

mine gets used for distilling water...

[shortly]

Unless something has changed, these laws cover possession of a still only, and it is illegal to distill any quantity of ethanol without a license.

True, however it has always been policy to issue the permit to distill application with the registration of the still, regardless of the actual intended use of the still.

I cant see that changing since its seen as an efficiency, giving the appearance of cutting red tape while increasing cashola ka ching $$$$$

[C_T]

yes as stated above, technically its totally illegal.

but i've been told by the homedistilling community, so long as your not selling any, they turn a blind eye, so just don't attract unwanted attention. most the people they are after is counterfeit alcohol in pubs and clubs.

supposedly all commercial alcohol contains trace things to marquees work to "show" its authentic... personally all this extra crap is more reason to make it yourself!

[ballzac]

so long as your not selling any, they turn a blind eye, so just don't attract unwanted attention.

I think this would be mostly true, but it's just another stupid law that could be used at the discretion of the police if they don't like you. Imagine a cop using "reasonable suspicion" to search your house because he thinks he smells cannabis. He doesn't find any, but does find a small still and several bottles of 'moonshine'. I think it's unlikely he'd be turning a blind eye.

[ballzac]

I also think I should note that I do not completely disagree with having to pay excise on alcohol, considering a lot of people who make their own liquor are likely to over-indulge and become a burden on the public healthcare system. I think it would be reasonable to legalize distilling for personal use, and to apply a small excise in the form of an annual license (it would be too hard to police one based on quantity). Applying harsh penalties to those who distill without the licence would encourage people to pay the fee, but without the ridiculously stringent licencing standards that currently force people to do it illegally. Having said that, I don't think there are enough people distilling to make it worth their while changing any laws, so unlike cannabis prohibition, I would expect our distilling laws to remain the same for a long time.

[Bigred]

Thanks for all the posts would be cool if you could go about producing your fuels only with out the massive

start up costs and hassles . Maybe look into bio Diesel using spent cooking oils but to do it seems so much

hassle to distill ethanol

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Good chipperys clean there oil regularly so it'd be a good one to look into if you can find the source