Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns 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 need throughout Europe that imports now account for 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.

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

Used cooking oil imports might increase logging

Consumers present 'growing danger' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the toughest obstacles for governments all over the world.

They've motivated the use of biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 indicates they cancel out the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely utilized as elements of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively rejected since it encourages logging.

So for the last years or so, making use of used cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging throughout Europe to collect 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 adequate 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 research study suggests this is extremely bothersome when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals 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 most 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, since that's the least expensive oil readily available.

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some experts think fraud is rife.

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

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has taken pertinent steps to totally 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 need to be registered.

"The mix of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems occur 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 first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming suspected 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 years.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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