Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the environmental effect 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

With no screening of what's coming in, specialists believe it is also ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transport is proving to be one of the toughest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually encouraged the use of biofuels as a crucial 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 soak up more CO2 implies they cancel out the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly used as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been extensively challenged because it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging throughout 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 simply isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is highly bothersome when it comes to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people 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 but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of utilized oil that's gathered 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 less utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were previously using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

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

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some deceitful traders are simply diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is carried out, some professionals believe scams is rife.

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

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent actions to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He states a new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability data 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 problems arise in the entire 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, might not work in stemming presumed scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.