Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

remarks

354 Comments

New research questions the environmental effect of increasing imports of utilized cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no chance to show these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's can be found in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

Consumers pose 'growing risk' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the toughest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually encouraged the use of biofuels as a crucial means of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

Biofuels are usually a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely discredited since it encourages deforestation.

So for the last decade or two, the usage of utilized cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with a reliable market springing up across Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there simply isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.

According to a report from the campaign group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO utilized in Europe is .

Their research study suggests this is highly problematic when it pertains to effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals in these nations are changing the UCO with, when it is exported.

In 2019, Malaysia exported 90 million litres of UCO to the UK and Ireland. Figures for their exports to other European nations aren't available but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less used cooking oil to utilize on the important things that they were formerly using it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil available.

"So indirectly, we're just encouraging more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some professionals believe fraud is swarming.

The suggestion of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation plans in place.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a brand-new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns occur in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be effective in stemming believed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, possibly causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related subjects

COP26

Paris environment arrangement

Climate