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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological effect of increasing imports of used 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 demand throughout Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any screening of what's coming in, specialists think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might enhance deforestation

Consumers posture 'growing danger' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be among the hardest difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as a crucial methods of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

Biofuels are usually a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely rejected because it encourages logging.

So for the last years approximately, using utilized cooking oil has actually expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential element of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging across Europe to collect and process the item.

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

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

Their research study suggests this is extremely problematic when it concerns impacts on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material 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 nations 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 readily available but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of used oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were formerly utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are simply diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some specialists think fraud is swarming.

The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust accreditation schemes in place.

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

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

"The of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems 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 fraud.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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