Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

remarks

354 Comments

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

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

But such is the demand across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's being available in, experts think it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

Consumers posture 'growing threat' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the most difficult challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They've motivated making use of biofuels as a crucial ways of curbing carbon from cars and trucks.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were once commonly utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly discredited because it encourages deforestation.

So for the last years or so, using utilized cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key component of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

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

According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, over half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

Their study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals in these nations are replacing 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 offered but the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the least expensive oil readily available.

"So indirectly, we're simply motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The worry is that some dishonest traders are simply watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is brought out, some specialists think scams is rife.

The recommendation of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation schemes in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent actions to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The combination of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems develop in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

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

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of utilizing 'phony' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related topics

COP26

Paris climate agreement

Climate