I imagine this is old news and I am in fact way behind the curve as usual, but it’s amazing what you can discover when browsing Homebrew sites*. On the day that wind power being a bit crap starts making waves** I discovered that since 2007 it’s been legal to run your own still to produce up to 2,500 litres of spirits for use in BioFuels. Now as someone that’s quite keen on having a moderate amount of independence and avoiding paying tax on anything I don’t have to pay tax on this seemed a bit too good to be true. So I checked. Turns out it is true. If you’re making less than 2,500 litres of bio-ethanol domestically you only have to keep production records. This seems really quite interesting as it’d give me something to do with all my excess rhubarb whilst saving on oil costs, if nothing else. Reading further it seems that domestic production isn’t subject to PPC.
“Generally, the production of biodiesel by individuals such as householders and farmers for their own use, that is, for non-commercial purposes, would not be subject to the PPC Regulations. Where a PPC permit is not required and where biodiesel production involves the treatment of waste the requirement for waste management controls will still be relevant.”
The final pieces that make me think this is worth playing with are section 4.2.1:
“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.”
And from section 2.1:
‘Bioethanol’ means a liquid fuel:
consisting of ethanol produced from biomass, and
capable of being used for the same purposes as light oil”
So Bioethanol produced from excess rhubarb should be no-problem, then I thought of LegIron and realised I could maybe grow tobacco and make Bioethanol from tobacco! A quick search revealed that “Loose-leaf tobacco has a high average sugar content (approximately 35%)”, so that looks pretty ideal to me. Not only can you avoid tax, you can tell all those people so worried about second hand smoke that your car/heating is running on tobacco and what’s more other bio-fuels might be as well and they’ll never know, forth hand smoke via tobacco produced electricity anyone?
Update To address popular curiosity, this is the rhubarb in question, those are 6ft x 6ft fence panels, and that’s the rhubarb after most of the harvesting.
* No commission/affiliate deal there, I just figure it pays to tout firms you like doing business with.
** Pun intended
something to do with all my excess rhubarb
No, look, you can’t just introduce the curious fact of having such quantities of unused rhubarb that it is a viable source of fuel rather than chutney.
There must be some explanation as to how you came to be in possession of a rhubarb farm; narrative demands it.
Did you inherit it from a mad uncle, was there a special offer on rhubarb crowns one year and you thought “Hang it, I intend to show Barnsley how it is done” or did you win from a man with a droopy moustache in an obscure bet on a game of cards, at a point where bets had to be laid down in the form of watches, companion animals and surplus produce?
What can I say it came with the house, how the house acquired so much rhubarb is I suspect a tale more suited to LegIrons creative talents (I suspect eldar gods). However despite removing one crown entirely and splitting the other two in half and getting rid of the other halves – rhubarb production continues unabated. Last year resulted in about 6 litres* of rhubarb preserve (Autoclaves are great for preserving jars), 12 litres of wine and giving away about another who knows how many pounds. I think I worked out that I’d harvested over 40lbs of the stuff without even making that much of a dent on them.
* Sorry for using metric, but that’s how the jars are calibrated.
As the post now reflects the rhubarb does get a little out of hand.
Are you near a field of cows? I once bought a bag of cried cow crap and put some on the rhubarb. It turned into a triffid. When I moved I brought a small amount of root with me and made the mistake of putting more dried cow crap on it.
A couple of years ago I had to move it before it tipped the shed over. Gave away most of the root and still can’t use it all.
Verily, it is the food of the gods.
As for tobacco, if I can produce excess I’m going to try tobacco wine. Two vices in one.
Agh. Dried cow crap. Cried cow crap was too expensive.
Damn, I was wondering where I could get cried cow crap.
Nope in the middle of a council estate, near some meadows, cats and foxes but not a lot else. I suspect it is of a similar triffid strain to yours, hence I keep trying to find ways to use up more of it to protect the rest of the garden.
I’ll look forward to hearing how tobacco wine goes, as obviously that’d be an intermediate step before tobacco fuel and would have to be tried :)