Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the ecological impact of rising imports of used 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 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 method to prove these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's being available in, specialists think it is also ripe for scams.

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

They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an important means of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are normally a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has been widely discredited because it encourages logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key component of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up 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 sufficient chip fat to walk around.

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

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

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 offered however the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

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

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are just watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is performed, some specialists believe fraud is swarming.

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

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

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

"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns occur in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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