Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

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

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

They have actually encouraged making use of biofuels as a crucial means of suppressing carbon from cars and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly used as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely discredited because it motivates logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial element of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

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

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

Their study recommends this is highly troublesome when it comes to 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 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 nations aren't available but the flow of UCO is most likely to be similar.

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 individuals, handled to gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are merely watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some specialists believe scams is rife.

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

"It is extensively known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated 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 registered.

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

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming believed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next years.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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