Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological impact of increasing 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 need across Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any screening of what's coming in, specialists believe it is also ripe for scams.

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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 important methods of curbing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively used as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged since it encourages deforestation.

So for the last years or two, using used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being an essential element of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

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

According to a report from the campaign group Transport & Environment, external, majority of the in Europe is imported.

Their study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals in these nations 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 readily available but 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 utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled 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 formerly utilizing 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 most affordable oil readily available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some professionals think fraud is swarming.

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

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

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

"The combination of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems develop in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not be efficient in stemming thought fraud.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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