Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was even worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK motorists will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is likely to to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is tough to find any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really expensive method to decrease carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because used cooking oil is related to as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"

"It is crazy however the rewards are there."

There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using diesel in the first location," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it understood the problems triggered by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles on the planet is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, job manager at the EBB.

"It has brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has actually decreased EU dependence on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

"If there was no biodiesel farmers would just make their land idle - no food, no feed!"

As the UK strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government faces some tough decisions on how to move forward on this concern as it faces tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.

Insiders recommend its preference would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from nations with powerful farming sectors who benefit from the present arrangement will be difficult.

"When you have a lobby which includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is very difficult for Governments to make a U-turn," stated Rob Bailey.

County begins recycling chip fat

8 December 2010

How does Qantas fly on chip fat? Video, 00:02:00 How does Qantas fly on chip fat?

13 April 2012

Measuring energy crops' footprint

18 October 2012