1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the ecological impact 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 conserves carbon emissions by oil.

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

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

Without any testing of what's being available in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may improve logging

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

They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as an essential ways of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

Biofuels are normally a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively used as elements of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely rejected since it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there merely isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it comes to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals in these countries 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 countries aren't readily available but the flow 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, managed to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have less used cooking oil to use on the important 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 mostly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some experts believe fraud is swarming.

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

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

He states a new database being developed by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability data 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 issues develop 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 first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming thought fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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