Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological effect 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that’s made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what’s being available in, specialists think it is also ripe for scams.

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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 using biofuels as an important methods of from cars and trucks and lorries.

Biofuels are normally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 suggests they cancel out the carbon released when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been commonly rejected because it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key part of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

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

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it comes to influence 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 concern of what individuals in these countries 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 countries aren’t available but the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that’s close to 3 litres per head of utilized oil that’s collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

"And they’re just buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that’s the cheapest oil offered.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is performed, some professionals believe scams is rife.

The tip of scams 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 extensively known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps to completely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” said Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

He states a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The combination of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain,” he told BBC News.

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

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel seeking 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 dangers of using ‘phony’ UCO, potentially resulting in indirect effects such as logging.“

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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