Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

comments

354 Comments

New research concerns the environmental 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's can be found in, experts think it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might enhance deforestation

Consumers position 'growing threat' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated using biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a blend of source and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

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

So for the last years or so, the use of utilized cooking oil has expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key part of biodiesel with an effective market springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there just isn't adequate 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 research study recommends this is highly troublesome when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about 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 offered but the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil available.

"So indirectly, we're just motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is brought out, some specialists think fraud is swarming.

The tip of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification schemes in place.

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has actually taken relevant actions to totally 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 have to be registered.

"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability problems occur in the whole 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 efficient in stemming suspected fraud.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of utilizing 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related topics

COP26

Paris climate contract

Climate