mission-newenergy-ltd

1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

comments

354 Comments

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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need throughout 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 prove these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's can be found in, specialists believe it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports may boost logging

Consumers pose 'growing risk' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated the usage of biofuels as a crucial means of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.

Biofuels are normally 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 means they cancel out the carbon given off when used in engines.

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

So for the last years or two, using utilized cooking oil has actually broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key component of biodiesel with a reliable market up across Europe to collect and process the product.

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

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

Their research study recommends this is highly problematic when it concerns influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered 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 people 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 however the flow of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some experts believe scams is swarming.

The suggestion 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 accreditation schemes in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate actions to entirely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated 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 need to be registered.

"The combination of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems develop 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, may not be reliable in stemming presumed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and air travel aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next years.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related subjects

COP26

Paris environment contract

Climate