Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological effect of increasing 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 saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need 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.

With no screening of what's being available in, specialists think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might improve deforestation

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the most difficult difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've motivated using biofuels as an important means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.

Biofuels are normally a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 suggests they counteract the carbon discharged when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively rejected since it motivates .

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential element of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging throughout Europe to collect and process the item.

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

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

Their study recommends this is highly problematic when it concerns effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 offered however the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil readily available.

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the products is performed, some professionals believe fraud is swarming.

The recommendation of fraud 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 location.

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

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

"The mix of revised accreditation plans 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 be efficient in stemming suspected scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and aviation aiming to decarbonise by using 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 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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