Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel


21 April 2021


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


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


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


Without any screening of what's being available in, professionals think it is likewise ripe for fraud.


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


They've encouraged making use of biofuels as a crucial methods of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.


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


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


Soy and palm oil were once widely used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively discredited due to the fact that it motivates logging.


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


Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key component of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging throughout Europe to gather 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 go around.


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


Their research study suggests this is extremely troublesome 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 utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals 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 available but the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.


With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of used 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 use on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.


"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil readily available.


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


Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.


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


As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is carried out, some specialists think scams is rife.


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


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


He states 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 mix of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns occur 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 very first mooted in 2018, may not be efficient in stemming believed scams.


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


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


Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.


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