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 thought about waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by oil.

But such is the demand across 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 other way to show these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's coming in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might boost deforestation

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

They've motivated the usage of biofuels as a crucial methods of suppressing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been widely challenged due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being an essential part of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up across Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there simply isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.

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

Their study recommends this is highly bothersome when it pertains to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material 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 countries aren't available however 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 utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil available.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some deceitful traders are simply watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is brought out, some experts believe fraud 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 extensively 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 says a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The mix of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns 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 believed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel aiming to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next decade.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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