Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental effect of rising imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it conserves 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 other way to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what's coming in, experts think it is also ripe for scams.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the hardest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

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

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 suggests they cancel out the carbon given off when utilized in .

Soy and palm oil were when extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel however this practice has actually been commonly challenged since it encourages logging.

So for the last years or so, the usage of used cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with an effective 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 considering that 2014, there simply 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 suggests this is highly problematic when it concerns impacts on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has 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 offered but the flow of UCO is most likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 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 people, handled 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 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 mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil readily available.

"So indirectly, we're simply encouraging more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are simply diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some experts believe fraud is swarming.

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

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken relevant actions to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said 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 need to be registered.

"The mix of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems arise in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not be effective in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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