Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel
21 April 2021
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New research concerns the environmental 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 saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.
But such is the demand across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.
According to the study, external, there's no method to show these imports are sustainable.
With no screening of what's coming in, professionals believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.
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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be among the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.
They have actually motivated using biofuels as an important means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.
Biofuels are normally a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.
The fact that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon emitted when used in engines.
Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged due to the fact that it motivates logging.
So for the last decade or so, the usage of used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key element of biodiesel with a reliable market springing up across Europe to collect and process the product.
But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just isn't adequate 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 study recommends this is highly problematic when it concerns effect on the environment.
While UCO is considered 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 individuals 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 nations aren't readily available 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 utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.
By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.
"Because we are buying it, they have less utilized cooking oil to utilize on the important things that they were formerly utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & .
"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the most affordable oil offered.
"So indirectly, we're simply motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."
Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.
Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down shipments of UCO with palm.
As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is performed, some experts think fraud is swarming.
The recommendation of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is declined 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 pertinent actions to totally suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.
He says a new database being developed by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.
"The combination of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns arise 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, might not work in stemming thought fraud.
The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next decade.
"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of using 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as deforestation."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
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Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel
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