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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the environmental impact 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 used to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need throughout Europe that imports now represent 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 being available in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might enhance logging

Consumers present 'growing danger' to tropical forests

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

They've motivated the use of biofuels as an essential methods of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.

Biofuels are typically a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has been widely discredited since it motivates logging.

So for the last decade approximately, using utilized cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key element of biodiesel with an efficient market springing up throughout Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there simply 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 troublesome when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product 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 countries aren't offered but the flow 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 gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less used cooking oil to use on the important things that they were previously using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some specialists think fraud is rife.

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

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

He says a new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems arise in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be efficient in stemming suspected fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as ."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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