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 thought about 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 account for more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what's can be found in, experts think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the hardest difficulties for federal governments all over the world.

They've motivated making use of biofuels as an important ways of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are normally a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon produced when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as components of biodiesel however this has actually been widely rejected because it motivates logging.

So for the last decade or so, making use of used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock 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 amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people 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 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 gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are purchasing 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 & Environment.

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the least expensive oil available.

"So indirectly, we're simply motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals think fraud is rife.

The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust accreditation schemes in place.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent actions to completely suppress 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 signed up.

"The combination of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns 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 work in stemming believed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of using 'phony' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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