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 rising 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now represent more than 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 can be found in, professionals think it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

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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've motivated using biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are typically a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

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

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

So for the last years or so, using used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a crucial element of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging across Europe to gather and process the product.

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

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

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

While UCO is considered 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 people in these countries are changing 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 flow 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 collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some professionals think fraud is rife.

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

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

He states a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be effective in stemming presumed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of utilizing 'fake' UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.