Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological impact of increasing imports of utilized cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now account for more than 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 testing of what's coming in, specialists believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

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

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

Biofuels are typically a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they counteract the carbon discharged when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly used as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively discredited since it motivates logging.

So for the last years or so, using used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key part of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there just isn't adequate chip fat to walk 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 extremely bothersome when it concerns effects 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 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 nations aren't 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 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 actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

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

"So indirectly, we're just motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is performed, some professionals think fraud is rife.

The tip of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in place.

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps to entirely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a new database being developed 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 schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems arise in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not be efficient in stemming believed scams.

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

"Rising the demand beyond levels would increase these concerns, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, potentially causing indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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