Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological impact of increasing imports of utilized cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

According to the study, external, there’s no other way to show these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what’s coming in, specialists believe it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance deforestation

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the most difficult difficulties for governments all over the world.

They’ve motivated making use of biofuels as an important means of suppressing carbon from cars and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they counteract the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely challenged because it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key part of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there simply isn’t enough chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns 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 concern 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 nations aren’t readily available however 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 used oil that’s collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, 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 less utilized cooking oil to use on the important things that they were previously using it for,” stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

“And they’re simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that’s the cheapest oil available.

“So indirectly, we’re just motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia.”

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts think scams is rife.

The recommendation of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation plans in location.

“It is commonly known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

He says a brand-new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

“The mix of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns develop in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain,” he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be effective in stemming presumed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

“Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of utilizing ‘fake’ UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as logging.”

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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