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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns 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 used to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no method to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any testing of what's being available in, believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might enhance logging

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the most difficult challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated the usage of biofuels as an essential methods of curbing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively used as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely rejected because it motivates deforestation.

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 actually become a key element of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

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

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

Their study recommends this is highly bothersome when it pertains to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 countries aren't available 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 used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil offered.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

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

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some specialists think scams is rife.

The suggestion 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 place.

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

He states a new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The mix of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability issues develop 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, may not work in stemming presumed fraud.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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