Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental impact of increasing 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 saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need 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 chance to show these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's being available in, professionals believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may increase deforestation

Consumers posture 'growing hazard' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is proving to be one of the toughest difficulties for federal governments all over the world.

They've encouraged making use of biofuels as an essential methods of suppressing 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 soak up more CO2 means they counteract the carbon given off when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been since it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging across Europe to gather and process the item.

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

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

Their research study suggests this is highly problematic when it pertains to effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people 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 countries aren't 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 collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil readily available.

"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 price of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are just diluting shipments 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 believe scams is rife.

The recommendation 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 certification plans in place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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