Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the environmental effect of increasing imports of used 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 demand across Europe that imports now represent majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what's coming in, professionals think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transport is proving to be among the hardest difficulties for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an essential ways of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are typically a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 implies they cancel out the carbon produced when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once commonly used as elements of biodiesel but this practice has been commonly rejected because it encourages logging.

So for the last decade or two, the use of used cooking oil has actually expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a crucial element of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there merely isn't enough chip fat to walk around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it pertains to effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what people 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 readily available but the circulation of UCO is most 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 individuals, handled to gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are merely watering down shipments 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 experts think fraud is rife.

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

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps to completely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He states a new database being established by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems arise in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming suspected scams.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of utilizing 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.