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 study concerns the environmental impact 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 utilized to make biodiesel it saves 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 way to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what's being available in, professionals think it is also ripe for fraud.

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

They have actually encouraged making use of biofuels as a crucial means of curbing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

Biofuels are normally 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 indicates they cancel out the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged since it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial element of biodiesel with an effective market springing up across Europe to collect and process the product.

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

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

Their study recommends this is extremely bothersome when it concerns effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material 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 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 available however the flow 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 contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some dishonest traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some specialists 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 schemes in place.

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues emerge 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, might not work in stemming thought fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using 'phony' UCO, potentially leading to indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.