Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological impact of increasing 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 need throughout Europe that imports now account for over half of the UCO that’s made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there’s no way to show these imports are sustainable.

With no screening of what’s being available in, experts think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the most difficult difficulties for governments all over the world.

They’ve encouraged the usage of biofuels as an important methods of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are typically a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

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

Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been widely rejected because it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial component of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there merely isn’t adequate chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study suggests this is highly troublesome when it concerns 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 utilized to feed animals. The 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 offered 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 utilized oil that’s gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have less used 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 and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that’s the cheapest oil offered.

"So indirectly, we’re just motivating 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 frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some professionals think fraud is rife.

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

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent steps to totally suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” said Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

He says a new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability issues occur in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain,” he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not be effective in stemming thought fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing ‘phony’ UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as logging.“

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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