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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the environmental 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 majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's can be found in, professionals think it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may improve deforestation

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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.

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

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

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

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely discredited because it encourages logging.

So for the last years or so, making use of used cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key component of biodiesel with an effective market emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just 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 research study recommends this is extremely troublesome when it concerns 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 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 circulation of UCO is 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 gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil readily 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 frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are simply watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some experts believe scams is rife.

The tip 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 extensively known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps 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 make sure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues develop 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 be efficient in stemming presumed scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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