Climate change: Growing doubts over biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological effect 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 utilized to make biodiesel it conserves 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.

Without any screening of what’s can be found in, specialists think it is also ripe for scams.

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

They have actually motivated the use of biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 indicates they cancel out the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly discredited due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.

So for the last decade or two, the use of used cooking oil has actually expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there simply isn’t sufficient 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 recommends this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized 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 available however the flow of UCO is most likely to be similar.

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

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled 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 utilizing it for,” said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they’re just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that’s the cheapest oil available.

"So indirectly, we’re just motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia.“

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is brought out, some experts think fraud is rife.

The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust certification plans in place.

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent steps to entirely curb 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 ensure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns emerge 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 very first mooted in 2018, might not be effective in stemming thought scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using ‘fake’ UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as deforestation.“

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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