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 utilized cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are considered 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 over 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.

With no testing of what's can be found in, experts think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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

They have actually encouraged the usage of biofuels as an important ways of curbing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

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

So for the last years 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 ended up being an essential part of biodiesel with an efficient industry emerging throughout Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there simply isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.

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

Their research 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 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 offered but the circulation of UCO is most likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 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, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is carried out, some experts believe fraud is rife.

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

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has taken relevant actions to totally suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a brand-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 combination of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability issues develop in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming presumed scams.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would these concerns, and threats of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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