Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the ecological effect of rising imports of utilized 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

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

They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as an essential ways of curbing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are normally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

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

Soy and palm oil were once commonly utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely challenged because it motivates deforestation.

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

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

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

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

Their study recommends this is extremely problematic 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 utilized 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. for their exports to other European countries aren't offered but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have 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 simply purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are just watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some experts believe scams is rife.

The recommendation of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation schemes in location.

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

He says a new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability data 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 problems develop 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 first mooted in 2018, may not be reliable in stemming believed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand 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, possibly leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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