Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the effect of rising 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 demand across Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what's can be found in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

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

They have actually motivated using biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged due to the fact that it motivates logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being an essential part of biodiesel with an effective market springing up across Europe to gather and process the product.

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

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

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

While UCO is considered 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 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 comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of used oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

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

"So indirectly, we're simply encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The concern is that some deceitful traders are just watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is brought out, some experts believe scams is rife.

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

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

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

"The mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues emerge in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be reliable in stemming believed scams.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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