Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns 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 across Europe that imports now represent 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.

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from transport is showing to be one of the hardest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually encouraged using biofuels as a crucial means of curbing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

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

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 suggests they cancel out the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly used as components of biodiesel however this practice has been extensively discredited since it encourages logging.

So for the last years or two, making use of used cooking oil has actually broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key part of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there just 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 imported.

Their research study suggests this is extremely bothersome when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what people 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 readily available however the circulation of UCO is most likely to be similar.

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 purchasing it, they have actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were previously using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

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

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is brought out, some experts think fraud is rife.

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

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

He states a brand-new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The combination of modified certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues develop in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation seeking to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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