Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the environmental effect 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 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 other way to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what's coming in, experts think it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may increase logging

Consumers posture 'growing risk' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the hardest challenges for governments all over the world.

They've encouraged making use of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.

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

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

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

So for the last decade or so, making use of utilized cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a crucial component of biodiesel with an efficient industry emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is highly troublesome when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals in these countries are replacing 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 flow of UCO is 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 contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil offered.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some professionals think scams is swarming.

The idea 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 plans in location.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to completely unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The mix of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns arise 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, might not be reliable in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of using 'phony' UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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