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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's being available in, professionals believe it is also ripe for fraud.

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

They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

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 absorb more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been widely challenged because it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key part of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging across Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there merely isn't enough chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study recommends this is highly troublesome when it comes to influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people in these nations are replacing 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 aren't readily available but the circulation of UCO is 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the important 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 mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil offered.

"So indirectly, we're just encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some experts think scams is rife.

The recommendation 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 schemes in location.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken relevant steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The combination of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability issues arise 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 first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming presumed fraud.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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