Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

comments

354 Comments

New research concerns the environmental effect of increasing imports of utilized 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 demand across Europe that imports now account for over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no screening of what's being available in, experts think it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

Consumers position 'growing risk' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an important methods of curbing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

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

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once commonly utilized as parts of biodiesel however this practice has been commonly discredited due to the fact that it motivates logging.

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

and other waste oils have ended up being an essential component of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across 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 merely isn't adequate chip fat to walk around.

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

Their research study suggests this is extremely bothersome when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what people in these countries 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 countries aren't offered 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 utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less used cooking oil to utilize on the important things that they were previously 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 least expensive oil available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are simply watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the products is brought out, some experts believe scams is rife.

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

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

He says a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not be reliable in stemming thought fraud.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related subjects

COP26

Paris environment contract

Climate